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SB    31D 


THE 


lENTUS  OF  DEMOCRACY; 


THE   FALL  OF  .BABYLON. 


A.    C.    HARNESS. 


Tin-  Lio  of  Judah  luitl)  sin-uns  from  his  laic. 

His  KJII  in-  i.~  fn-.-dom,  his  throne  is  tin-  ah. 

Mis  il.oa  nioii  from  ocean  to  ocean  is  spread, 

His  mis,  oil's  to  furnish  t)ie  ravens  with  hrcad. 

H.-  hold    th-  a.M-j,  s.-a  in  tlie  palm  of  his  han.l, 
Tht;  ,,«-,-   n's  mail  bill(.'\\'s  ohov  his  coiiimaiul. 
Thi-  h.-a  ••  of  his  hosom  is  thu  swell  ticl.-  of  Jif<> 
Aii-l  tli«-  daughter  of /ion  his  heantiful  wit'.-. 


PHILADELPHIA  : 
P  I T  B  L  T  .«  1 1  K  1 )     B  Y    B  AK  C  L  AY 

I-.XTFI  STI:I 

2 


THE 


GENIUS  OF  DEMOCRACY; 


OR, 


THE  FALL  OF   BABYLON. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PUBLISHED    BY    BARCLAY    &    CO., 

No.  21  NOHTH  SEVENTH  STREET. 
'      '    1873. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1G73,  by 

A.  C.  HARNESS, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  E> 


D  E  DICATE  D 


THE  LION  OF   THE  TRIBE  OF  JUDAII, 
THE    PRINCE    OF    THE    HOUSE    OF    DAVID, 

THE  ALPHA   AND    OMEGA, 

THE  BEGINNING  AND  THE  ENDING, 

THE  FIRST  AND  THE  LAST, 

THE   EVERMORE, 

OR, 

THE  WORD  OF   GOD. 


The  red  horse  paled  at  his  whispered  sigh, 

And  the  pale  horse  vanished  in  the  glance  of  his  eye. 


CONTENTS. 


To  the  People 6 

Liberty 8 

Plan  of  the  City 11 

The  Ensign  of  Universal  Liberty ; 15 

The  Destruction  of  Sennacherib 16 

The  Beautiful  River 17 

The  Morning  Star 18 

Chide  him  not 19 

Good-bye 20 

I  trusted  One  whose  Heart  was  false 22 

The  Parting 24 

The  Valley  of  Shadows 25 

The  Vale  of  Purification 26 

Look  and  Live 27 

Never 28 


INTRODUCTION. 


To  those  who  read  my  books  I  have  but  this 
request  to  make — let  every  one  utter  the  candid 
convictions  of  his  own  secret  soul,  for  candor  ie 
purity,  and  confession  is  love. 


Then  fire  will  burn  on  every  heart, 
And  Hash  from  every  kindled  eye, 
And  every  gleam  will  be  a  dart, 
That  dooms  some  cherished  sin  to  die. " 

Then  soul  with  soul  will  meet  and  clash, 
As  meeting  clouds  their  lightning  flash, 
Till  clouds  and  darkness  leave  the  sky, 
And  heaven  greets  each  chastened  eye. 

Till  all  shall  see  the  deep,  deep  blue, 
The  dewy  vault  so  clear  and  true, 
Where  man  will  meet  his  Maker's  face, 
A  smile  of  sweet,  parental  grace. 

v 


THE  GENIUS   OF  DEMOCRACY. 


TO  THE  PEOPLE. 

"  THE  City,  the  place  of  our  fathers'  sepulchres,  lieth 
waste,  and  the  gates  thereof  are  consumed  with  fire." 

Will  the  true  and  good  men  of  our  country — those  who 
have  not  lost  faith  in  Liberty — the  everlasting  Father — 
the  Alpha  and  Omega,  meet  in  a  National  Convention  to 
rebuild  that  City  ?  A  city  which  was  once  the  home  of 
the  virtuous  and  the  good,  but  now  the  hold  of  every  foul 
spirit,  and  the  cage  of  every  unclean  and  hateful  bird  ? 
Will  they  meet  to  tear  down  its  walls,  daubed  with  untem- 
pered  mortar,  to  clear  away  the  rubbish  of  its  ruins,  and 
lay  its  foundations  anew,  upon  the  principles  of  Truth, 
unchanging  Truth,  and  eternal  Justice  ? 

Will  they  meet  to  reassert  the  personal  freedom  of  man, 
as  against  corporate  power,  and  the  political  rights  of  man, 
as  against  organized  despotism  ? 

Will  they  meet  to  maintain  and  promulgate  that  simple 
practical  thought  :  "  Let  them  who  are  chief  among  you 
be  the  servants  of  the  rest,"  the  cardinal  principle  of  our 
American  system  ? 

Will  this  be  the  character  and  purpose  of  this  Conven 
tion,  or  will  they,  like  all  other  political  conventions  which 
have  met  in  this  country  for  these  many  years,  meet  only 
to  set  an  expediency  trap  to  catch  the  Presidency,  with  its 

patronage  and  plunder? 

5 


6  THE  GENIUS  OF  DEMOCRACY;  OR, 

Will  they  meet  to  arouse  in  the  bosoms  of  their  country 
men  that  spark  of  Deity  which  leads  men  to  love  justice, 
truth  and  liberty,  elements  of  power  which  alone  can  create 
and  preserve  a  pure  and  healthy  Democracy ;  or  will  they 
meet  only  to -vitalize  a  political  faction,  which  in  the  name 
of  Democracy  has  bartered  away  every  principle  that 
makes  freedom  possible  and  Democracy  desirable  ? 

Will  they  meet,  in  the  name  of  the  people,  to  proclaim 
their  undying  hostility  to  that  Upstart  Aristocracy,  that 
Bastard  Nobility,  which,  by  means  of  its  banks  and  its 
bonds,  the  stealings  of  an  unnecessary,  cruel  and  unholy 
war,  has  subsidized  to  its  uses  the  moral,  social  and  poli 
tical  institutions  of  the  country  ? 

It  buys  the  pulpits,  to  corrupt  the  religion  of  the  people. 

It  buys  the  press,  to  delude  the  people  into  the  fatal 
belief  that  a  cowardly  and  time-serving  expediency  will 
release  them  from  the  cruel  wrongs,  and  unbearable  bur 
dens,  which  have  already  reduced  them  to  the  condition 
of  European  serfs. 

It  buys  the  political  power  to  enact  prescriptive  and 
tyrannical  laws,  making  it  disloyalty  to  question  its  high 
pretensions,  and  treason  to  deny  the  justice  of  its  bold  and 
reckless  usurpations. 

It  buys  the  legislature,  both  State  and  National,  to  pass 
laws  for  its  special  benefit,  to  the  detriment  of  every  man 
who  is  engaged  in  an  honest  and  useful  occupation. 

In  a  word,  it  has  set  up  mammon  for  God,  made  money 
the  measure  of  merit,  and  commanded  all  men  to  take  into 
their  partnership,  in  the  ordinary  business  avocations  of 
life,  the  favorite  children  of  this  harlot,  duplicity  and 
fraud,  or  face  the  ghastly  stare  of  bankruptcy  and  star 
vation. 

This  mystic  Babylon,  this  vast  trellis-work  of  Banks 
and  Bonds,  like  a  great  wire-bridge,  spans  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  one  foot  resting  on  the  backs  of  the  down-trodden 


THE  FALL   OF  BABYLON.  7 

children  of  Europe,  and  the  other  on  the  backs  of  the  more 
recently  enslaved  children  of  America. 

Children  of  Washington,  children  of  Adams,  children 
of  Jefferson,  children  of  Hamilton,  children  of  Henry, 
children  of  Warren,  children  of  Lafayette,  children  of 
Emmet,  children  of  Bruce,  children  of  Tell,  will  you  stand 
still  until  the  "  land  of  the  free  and  home  of  the  brave  " 
shall  be  incorporated  into  the  despotism  of  Europe,  or  will 
you  move  from  under  the  Oppressor  of  all,  and  let  it  fall 
and  sink  into  the  depths  of  the  sea  ? 

The  hour  of  your  redemption  has  come. 

Will  you  as  the  children  of  Liberty,  the  everlasting 
Father,  claim  for  yourselves  and  for  your  children,  your 
heaven-born  rights,  and  proclaim  to  the  world  a  jubilee 
of  universal  freedom  ;  or  will  you,  as  the  offspring  of  apes 
and  monkeys,  sell  your  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage, 
and  bequeath  to  your  children  the  curse,  the  plague,  the 
mildew,  the  blast,  the  blight,  the  woe,  the  death  denounced 
against  those  who  are  false  to  Justice,  to  Truth  and  to 
Liberty  ? 


THE  GENIUS  OF  DEMOCRACY;  ORt 


JUSTICE. 


LIBERTY. 

I  HEARD  a  voice,  it  speaks  to  me, 

It  spake  to  me  before, 
It  is  the  voice  of  Liberty, 

That  lived  in  days  of  yore. 

It  called  me  from  my  mountain  home, 
The  Shepherd's  peaceful  ways, 

Where  I  had  gone  to  live  alone 
And  dream  away  my  days. 

It  led  me  to  the  tented  field, 

To  witness  noble  deeds, 
Where  'mid  the  clang  of  clashing  steel 

The  patriot  warrior  bleeds. 

It  said  above  the  battle's  din, 
Above  its  marshalled  tread, 
"Freedom  for  the  brave  who  win, 
'Tis  for  the  Deathless  dead." 

It  bade  me  see  the  desert  waste 
That  marked  the  spoiler's  path, 

A  torch  for  every  dwelling  place, 
A  tyrant's  petty  wrath. 


THE  FALL  OF  BABYLON. 

It  led  me  up  to  Pisgah's  top, 

Where  Israel's  prophet  stood, 
And  showed  me  Israel's  peaceful  lot, 

And  Jordan's  rolling  flood. 

Oh,  bright  Elysium,  Beulah's  land, 

Stay,  rapturous  vision,  stay, 
And  let  me  here  enchanted  stand 

Till  life  has  passed  away. 

Oh,  touch  my  lips  with  hallowed  fire, 

Thou  spirit  from  the  skies, 
To  Heaven's  music  tune  my  lyre 

Before  the  rapture  dies. 

The  city  with  its  gates  of  pearl, 

Thy  temple  built  anew, 
Bright  Banner  dipped  in  blood,  unfurl 

Thyself  to  mortal  view. 

Lo  !  Heaven's  host  in  bright  array, 
The  marshalled,  Deathless  dead, 

The  sun,  moon,  stars,  they  melt  away, 
Earth  trembles  'ncath  their  tread. 

Earthquaked  islands  lost  to  sight, 
Doomed  Empires,  tumbling  thrones, 

Fall,  crashing  fall,  a  hideous  plight, 
Earth's  face  a  stare  of  bones. 

A  dreadful  wasting  wave  of  fire, 

Phal'nx  of  the  Deathless  dead, 
Avenging  flood  of  Heaven's  ire 

Meets  tyrants  pale  with  dread. 

Where,  robbers,  thieves,  where,  dastard  crew, 

Oh,  where,  where  will  you  fly? 
Earth  hath  no  hiding  place  for  you, 

The  lost  are  doomed  to  die. 

Poor  widows  robbed  and  orphans  starved, 

The  martyred  ones  of  earth, 
The  innocent,  like  lamblets  carved, 

To  furnish  devils  mirth- 


10  THE  GENIUS  OF  DEMOCRACY;  OR, 

They're  there  to  whet  sharp  vengeance  sword 

And  urge  the  havoc  on, 
Extirpate  death ;  yes,  that's  the  word, 

And  mercy  show  to  none. 

Brave  sons  of  freedom,  lift  your  shout 

Of  Victory  on  high, 
Hell's  marshalled  hosts  are  put  to  rout 

By  him  who  rules  the  sky. 

"Peace,  Peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  man," 

A  still  small  voice  I  hear ; 
'Tis  Finished,  my  redeeming  plan 

The  innocent  to  spare. 

To  live,  to  reign  on  earth  with  me, 

And  sin  again  no  more, 
Of  me  (my  name  is  Liberty) 

The  prophets  taught  of  yore. 


THE  FALL   OF  BA B YL ON.  1 1 


PLAN    OF    THE    CITY. 

IN   MEMORIAM. 

ANOTHER  memorial  day  has  passed — the  fourth,  I  be 
lieve,  from  the  beginning  ;  but  how  different  was  it  in  all 
its  aspect  from  the  first  day  we  met — not  to  build  tomb 
stones  to  the  dead,  but  to  institute  a  service — a  beautiful, 
a  holy  service — to  keep  alive  in  our  own  hearts  that  love 
of  liberty  and  truth,  which  made  the  deeds  of  our  fallen 
comrades  immortal  and  their  lives  eternal.  How  sweet  it 
was  then,  even  in  the  midst  of  seeming  defeat  and  disas 
ter,  to  catch  that  lofty  inspiration  which  lifts  man  above 
the  accidents  of  time  and  chance — that  high  and  holy 
state  of  being  in  which  death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory, 
and  time  is  lost  in  eternity  ! 

Why  should  we,  who  are  capable  of  doing  such  noble 
deeds,  stoop  to  do  things  so  little  ?  Why  should  we,  who 
have  it  in  our  power  to  make  this  day  the  holiest  of  the 
year,  the  dawn  of  a  new  era  in  human  affairs,  a  new 
sabbath  in  the  calendar  of  time,  belittle  it  to  gratify  our 
appetites,  and  to  make  a  display  of  our  vanity  ?  We  have 
built  a  monument,  it  is  true,  and  our  pride  is  gratified ; 
but  our  hearts  are  not  pleased,  for  pride  and  love  are 
strangers — they  dwell  not  together.  The  cold,  dumb 
marble  accords  well  with  the  naked,  sterile  grave-yard, 
and  both  are  a  fit  monument  to  the  dead ;  for  the  picture 
they  present  to  the  feeling  heart  is  that  of  a  tombstone 
in  the  valley  of  death. 

Pride  and  love  dwell  not  together.  Where  love  rules 
flowers  bloom  and  life  smiles ;  where  pride  rules,  death 
grins. 

And  what  ideas  have  we  of  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  the 


12  THE    GENIUS   OF  DEMOCRACY;    OR, 

Universe,  to  suppose  that  He  will  suffer  to  be  forgotten 
the  generous  and  the  brave,  who  poured  out  their  blood 
like  water  as  libations  upon  the  altar  of  His  truth,  and  at 
the  same  time  suffer  to  remain  forever  dumb  idols  that 
we  build  to  our  vanity  ?  Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves ; 
truth  was  not  vanquished  in  the  fight,  and  her  martyrs 
are  not  dead.  "  They  only  crossed  over  the  river  to  rest 
under  the  trees." 

That  awful  line  of  battle,  like  a  flood  of  fire,  is  but' 
waiting  the  signal  of  their  captain  to  recross  the  river 
and  sweep  oppression  from  the  earth. 

We  had,  too,  a  discourse  from  the  Masonic  order — a 
brotherhood  whose  deeds  of  charity  ought  to  win  our  re 
spect,  and  provoke  us  to  acts  of  generous  emulation, — that 
would  have  been  most  excellent  on  some  more  suitable  oc 
casion. 

The  modest  declaimer  of  the  orator  vindicates  him  and 
his  order  from  responsibility  for  this  breach  of  propriety, 
and  throws  the  blame  back  on  us,  who  ought  to  have 
had  a  better  appreciation  of  the  day.  Let  us  not  forget 
that  we  too  have  a  temple  to  build,  and  that  the  Master 
Mason,  under  whom  we  work,  said,  "  A  greater  than  Solo 
mon  is  here."  He  vindicated  His  higli  claims  by  opening 
the  eyes  of  the  blind,  unstopping  the  ears  of  the  deaf, 
making  the  lame  walk,  and,  above  all,  by  preaching  glad 
tidings  to  the  poor.  The  quaking  earth  attested  His  au 
thority  when  He  entered  the  valley  of  death,  and  heaven 
veiled  its  face  from  this  ungrateful  deed  of  man. 

The  building  of  this  temple  will  be  no  secret,  and  none 
will  be  excluded  from  the  work.  The  rich  and  poor,  the 
bond  and  free,  the  white  and  black,  the  blue  and  gray,  the 
lion  and  the  lamb — in  a  word,  all  ages  and  classes  and 
conditions  will  be  there. 

Not  only  the  virtuous  and  the  good,  but,  wonderful  to 
tell,  the  sinner,  too,  shall  take  part  in  this  work,  ave,  even 


TUB    FALL   OF   BABYLON.  13 

the  Canaanitish  woman,  whol)egs  the  crumbs  which  be 
long  to  the  dogs,  shall  not  be  excluded. 

The  foundation  of  this  temple  will  be  the  earth  re 
claimed  from  briars  and  thorns,  and  furnished  with  every 
appliance  needful  for  the  use  and  convenience  of  man,  and 
the  blue  arch  above  will  be  its  roof.  The  name  of  this 
temple  is  Liberty,  the  builder  is  Love,  his  square  is  Jus 
tice,  his  compass  is  Truth,  and  his  empire  is  Peace.  The 
Master  Mason  pointed  to  the  lily  as  the  type  of  this  tem 
ple,  and  said,  "  Solomon,  in  all  his  glory,  was  not  arrayed 
like  one  of  these."  Let  us  not  be  discouraged ;  the  lilies 
are  growing  in  the  valley,  the  spring  time  is  coming,  and 
their  bloom  will  shed  a  fragrance  that  will  heal  the  noxious 
vapors  that  breed  disease  and  death  to  man.  Let  us  not 
forget  the  type  of  this  temple — the  lily — modest  and  un 
assuming.  No  proud  pageant,  no  glare  of  glory,  no  vain 
pomp,  no  false  parade.  Nay,  the  glory  of  this  temple 
will  be  man  set  free  from  bondage — the  bondage  of  igno 
rance,  of  superstition,  of  ceaseless,  hopeless  toil.  The 
square  is  Justice,  and  because  no  man  can  bear  that  awful 
measure,  every  man  must  release  his  brother  and  forgive 
him  his  debts.  The  rich  must  open  his  heart  to  the  poor, 
the  strong  must  lift  his  arm  in  behalf  of  the  weak,  and 
the  wise  must  use  his  wit,  his  logic,  his  eloquence,  and 
every  man  whatever  talent  God  has  given  him,  to  shiver 
the  power  of  the  oppressor  and  shield  the  innocent  from 
the  grasp  of  his  cupidity.  The  watchword  is  war,  cease 
less  and  eternal  war — war  as  long  as  there  is  a  fettered 
slave  or  a  tyrant's  throne  on  earth.  Nor  does  it  matter 
whether  that  tyrant  is  an  ambitious  despot,  who  wills  to 
appropriate  to  himself  the  fruits  of  a  nation's  toil,  for  his 
minions  and  satellites,  or  some  petty  Shylock,  who  would 
devour  a  neighborhood. 

Nor  does  it  matter  whether  that  tyrant  would  keep  us 
in  bondage  by  the  juggleries  of  a  superstition,  miscalled 


14  THE    GENIUS   OF   DEMOCRACY;    OR, 

religion,  or  by  the  quibbling  tricks  of  a  legerdemain 
dubbed  law.  When  governments  become  the  oppressors 
of  man,  whether  they  assume  the  form  of  politics  or  re 
ligion,  they  have  no  authority  from  Heaven,  and  no 
claim  to  man's  obedience.  "  Let  them  who  are  chief'among 
you  be  the  servants  of  the  rest,"  is  the  only  commission 
given,  and  they  who  assume  any  other  are  pretenders  and 
usurpers. 

Our  comrades  who  fell  in  the  struggle  are  not  dead, 
and  we  who  survive  have  not  surrendered — we  dare  not 
surrender,  for  a  hundred  bloody  fields,  with  their  mangled 
victims,  would  rise  up  in  judgment  against  us.  Our  glo 
rious  old  chief — most  worthy  to  be  such,  for  he  was  truly 
the  servant  of  all,  for  whether  in  defeat  or  victory,  he  was 
in  the  advance,  and  bore  the  brunt  of  the  fight — never 
surrendered.  When  the  storm  clouds  of  defeat  and  disas 
ter  lowered  upon  us,  he  lifted  the  banner  of  right  higher 
and  higher,  until  the  Angel  of  the  Covenant  caught  it. 
from  his  hand,  and  flung  from  the  battlements  of  Hea 
ven  the  ensign  of  Universal  Liberty.  The  brave  men  who 
met  us  in  the  dread  conflict  of  battle  are  mustering  under 
this  new  banner.  Let  us  meet  them,  not  as  enemies  but 
as  friends,  not  to  destroy  one  another,  but  to  destroy  those 
wicked  powers  which  have  usurped  authority  on  earth  to 
destroy  man  and  make  his  heritage  of  good  a  curse.  On 
the  one  hand  Mammon  is  mustering  his  mercenary  le 
gions,  and  on  the  other  Liberty  is  marshalling  his  fiery 
cohorts.  Let  us  be  in  the  front  of  the  fray,  and  build  for 
our  fallen  comrades  a  monument  that  will  abide  for  ever, 
the  temple  of  Liberty.  A  SOLDIER. 


CHRISTIANITY.  15 


CHRISTIANITY;    OR,  THE  AMERICAN 
GRANGE. 

QUESTION. — When  is  a  man  not  a  man  ? 
ANSWER. — When  he  is  a  coward. 

— GUSSIE  WILLIAMS. 

MOOKEFIELD,  W.  VA.,  1873. 
DUDLY    W.  ADAMSj 

Master  of  Rational  Grange : 

WORTHY  BROTHER  : — There  is  something  so  simple, 
yrt  so  sublime,  iii  your  organization,  that  it  excites  both 
my  wonder  and  admiration.  The  sight  of  a  great  people 
silently  and  noiselessly  resuming  their  sovereign  rights 
and  personal  freedom,  by  means  of  local  meetings  every 
where  among  themselves,  all  free  from  mercenary  mo 
tives,  looks  to  me  like  the  laying  of  the  foundation  of 
that  temple  of  Liberty  which  shall  abide  on  earth  for 
ever. 

Its  clear  simplicity  and  fraternal  relations  are  elements 
of  that  Peace,  whose  ever  enduring  power  shall  make 
the  earth  an  abode  of  happiness  for  man,  and  a  temple 
of  glory  for  the  Creator. 

It  is  possible,  aye,  it  is  necessary,  for  your  organization 
to  be  pushed  on  until  it  supersedes  and  shoves  aside  all 
other  governments,  not  only  in  our  own  favored  laud, 
but  throughout  the  world.  For  its  origin  is  divine,  its 
organization  perfect,  and  its  mission  the  everlasting 
triumph  of  good  on  earth. 

The  faithful  service  of  the  virtuous  will  render  com 
pulsory  governments  unnecessary,  and  exempt  all  from 
taxation  and  mercenary  leaders,  with  their  hordes  of 
plunderers  ;  and  the  happy  fraternal  relations  subsisting 
between  all,  and  conserving  the  good  of  all,  will  be  a 


16  CHRISTIANITY. 

service  more  acceptable  to  our  Creator  and  Preserver 
than  idol  temples  and  fear-extorted  tithes. 

The  devil,  who  is  ever  on  the  alert  to  devise  means  to 
stay  his  tottering  empire,  is  to-day  plotting  a  trick  to 
defeat  your  wise  plans  and  thwart  your  benevolent  pur 
poses. 

Having  usurped  by  means  of  hireling  presses  and 
pulpits,  and  the  mercenary  leaders  of  mad  political  fac 
tions,  absolute  powers  in  these  United  States,  and  having 
abased  that  power  until  the  great  agricultural  resources 
of  the  country — the  springs  of  its  wealth— are  dried  up ; 
and  having  bloated  its  licentious  carcass  by  its  glutton 
ous  greed  until  it  is  ready  to  die  from  sheer  bestiality, 
it  is  preparing  to  vitalize  its  dead  body,  by  the  spasmodic 
excitements  and  external  stimulants  of  a  foreign  war. 

The  beggared  and  homeless  serfs  of  its  shoddy  aristo 
crats,  the  soul-drivers  of  those  factory  hells  where  child 
hood  is  dwarfed,  manhood  degraded,  and  womanhood 
polluted,  have  been  turned  out  on  the  world  to  beg  or 
starve.  In  times  of  peace,  necessity  would  drive  these 
poor  friendless  children  of  adversity  to  your  organization 
as  a  hiding  place  from  the  storm  and  a  home  for  their 
wants,  and  this  would  put  an  end  to  the  usurpations  and 
exactions  which  are  grinding  us  all  to  powder. 

The  usurpers  who  are  destroying  their  country,  hear 
in  this  contingency  the  knell  of  their  doom,  and  see  it 
in  the  end  of  their  stolen  authority ;  hence  their  eager 
ness  to  seize  on  this  or  any  other  pretext  for  war. 

A  war?  What  for?  To  enlist  this  paupered  popula 
tion,  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  chastising  a  foreign 
enemy,  but  for  the  real  and  ultimate  purpose  of  convert 
ing  it  into  a  mercenary  soldiery,  to  bolster  up  their 
falling  power  and  complete  the  enslavement  and  degra 
dation  of  the  people  of  this  country. 

Say  ye  this  is  an  idle  fear.  ^  So  said  many,  year.--  .".';;>, 


CHRISTIANITY.  17 

when  a  negro  body-driving  aristocracy  in  the  South  were 
co-operating  with  a  white  soul-driving  Bondautocracy  in 
the  North  to  precipitate  on  their  country  an  accursed 
fratricidal  war,  which  has  turned  out  to  be  national 
suicide,  the  death  of  liberty  and  virtue,  and  the  en 
thronemeut  of  licentiousness  and  crime.  ^ 

Beware,  my  brother,  beware !  and  heed  this  warning, 
though  it  come  from  one  of  the  private  sentinels  on  the 
walls  of  the  City  of  Safety,  which  we  are  building  for 
ourselves,  our  children,  and  our  children's  children  for 
ever.  Interpose  your  influence  and  all  the  power  of 
your  organization  to  avert  a  catastrophe  so  dire.  And 
when  we  shall  have  counterplotted  the  machinations  of 
our  enemies,  and  finished  our  good  work,  glory  and 
honor  will  crown  our  labors,  and  the  grateful  hearts  of 
freemen  will  embalm  our  memories  forever.  For  know, 
if  we  succeed  in  finishing  our  work,  we  will  have,  not  a 
mere  professed  liberty,  but  the  substantial  blessing  of  an 
ever  enduring  freedom. 

What  then  ?  Man  will  have  triumphed  on  earth,  and 
the  heavens  will  shed  their  dewy  tears  of  gladness,  and 
pour  on  us  the  genial  sunlight  of  perpetual  spring.  The 
early  and  later  rains  will  fructify  the  earth,  and  its 
teaming  harvests  will  furnish  a  superabundance- of  bread 
for  all. 

Anger  and  revenge  will  give  place  to  love,  and  peace 
will  dwell  in  all  our  borders.  Disease  and  pestilence 
^will  flee  from  the  happy  face  of  good — the  fatted  calf 
will  be  slain,  and  music  and  dancing  will  take  the  placo 
of  sorrow  and  tears.  Oh,  if  we  but  had  the  courage  to 
enter  this  promised  land,  the  faith  to  know  that  cowardice 
is  the  only  sin  man  ever  committed  against  his  Creator ; 
could  we  but  impress  this  truth  on  the  young  men  of  our 
country,  then  would  come  the  triumph  of — 


THE  GENIUS  OF  MORTALITY. 


THE  GENIUS  OF  MORTALITY. 

Then  ev'ry  boy  would  be  a  Tell 
And  every  tyrant  see  the  hell, 
Which  justice  made  when  time  began, 
For  robbers  of  the  rights  of  man. 

And  every  laddie  would  be  glad, 
And  ev'ry  lassie  love  her  lad, 
For  noble  deeds  of  manly  pride, 
Would  make  each  one  a  blushing  bride. 

And  every  pair  would  have  a  home, 
And  ev'ry  good  to  them  would  come, 
For  this  is  Heaven's  eternal  plan, 
To  give  its  ev'ry  good  to  man. 

And  not  to  puffed-up  flesh  and  blood, 
Poor  scoffers  at  a  world  of  good, 
Provisions  of  eternal  love, 
Made  by  Him  who  rules  above. 

Too  proud  to  see  in  nature's  field 
The  joyous  harvest  earth  Avould  yield, 
If  high  and  noble  deeds  would  prove 
Man  worthy  of  his  Maker's  love. 

They  ask  for  him  who  owns  it  all, 
A  sacrifice  for  ev'ry  fall, 
As  if  a  father  would  be  mad, 
Because  some  darliqg  child  is  sad. 

They  ask  it — nay — -to  feed  their  lust 
And  sink  our  souls  to  grov'Iing  dust, 
For  justly  Heaven  curses  all 
AVrho  barter  freedom  for  priostly  thrall. 


THE  GENIUS  OF  MORTALITY.  19 

The  purpose  high,  the  kindling  eye, 
Sends  flashes  thro'  the  cloud  wrapt  sky, 
And  sees  the  lovely  Eden  nigh, 
Where  even  mortals  shall  not  die. 

Sees  death  is  but  a  phantom  fright, 
That  gives  to  priestly  rule  its  might, 
That  gives  to  mortals  endless  pain, 
And  binds  them  fast  with  servile  chain. 

Then  tell  thy  laddie  be  a  man, 
And  thus  fulfil  great  nature's  plan, 
A  revelation  then  he'll  see, 
From  Heaven  making  mortals  free. 

And  full  and  free  will  be  the  joy 
Of  ev'ry  lassie,  when  her  boy 
Wrapt  in  a  flame  of  patriot  fire, 
The  image  of  the  kingly  sire, 

Demands  the  rights  the  Heavens  give, 
In  freedom  here  on  earth  to  live, 
Exempt  from  kingly,  priestly  rule, 
And  boasted  science  servile  school. 

To  think,  and  act,  and  live  and  love, 
The  gifts  of  Him  who  rules  above, 
Nay — time  itself  shall  end  its  hour, 
When  man  resumes  his  rightful  pow'r. 

For  time  is  but  a  sickly  fear, 

That  hampers  man  with  childish  gear, 

Eternity  the  living  joy 

Of  life  set  free  from'  time's  alloy. 

From  kingly  tricks  and  priestly  guile, 
The  harsh  command,  the  crafty  smile, 
From  custom's  pow'r  and  habit's  use, 
And  fashion's  fickle,  thin  abuse. 


20  '111E  GENIUS  Ob  MORTALITY. 

The  masking  in  uncomely  gear, 
The  charms  which  Grace  and  Beauty  wear, 
Till  chalk  white  cheeks  all  pale  and  dead, 
Must  barter  nature's  blush  for  lead. 

Wake,  wake,  sweet  hour  of  life  reborn 
And  quickly  blow  thy  clarion  horn, 
Relink  the  chain  which  death  did  sever, 
And  bid  our  youth  bloom  on  forever. 

A  SWITZEE  BOY 


THE   END. 


THE  FREEMAN1  S  GRA  VE.  21 


THE   FREEMAN'S  GRAVE. 

FAREWELL,  thou  bravest  of  the  brave ; 

Patriot  soldier,  fare  thee  well. 
The  muskets'  salute  o'er  thy  grave 

Alone  can  break  the  silent  spell ; 

Which  holds  thy  weeping  friends  in  arms, 

The  friends  whom  friendship's  chains  can  bind  ; 

But  not  the  dread  of  war's  alarms 
Can  chain  the  spirit  of  their  mind. 

For,  born  like  thee  in  freedom's  land, 
Like  thee  they'll  fill  a  freeman's  grave 

Before  they'll  kiss  the  tyrant's  hand 
Or  bow  before  oppression's  wave. 

The  freeman's  grave,  oh,  dreary  waste  ! 

Whence  life  and  joy  and  hope  hath  fled  ; 
No  shroud  his  moveless  limbs  to  grace, 

No  marble  marks  his  sleeping  head. 

Not  e'en  a  rough,  unpolished  board 

Betwixt  him  and  the  clammy  clay, 
To  shield  him  from  the  vermin  horde 

Which  ere  he's  cold  makes  him  their  prey. 

Instinctively  I  dread  this  doom, 

Yet  even  thus  would  dare  to  die 
Would  some  fond  friend  come  near  my  tomb, 

A  sigh  for  me,  one  long,  last  sigh. 

Would  some  kind  hand  whose  rapturous  touch 
Once  woke  the  warm  heart's  wildest  thrill, 

Plant  flowers  above  my  sleeping  dust 
To  bloom  and  say,  I  love  thee  still. 

Would  'neath  affection's  shower  of  tears 
Those  flowers  of  memory  sweetly  bloom, 

And  on  the  waste  of  long,  long  years 
Shed  fragrance  round  my  lowly  tomb. 

"A  SOLDIER." 


THE   GREAT   TRIAL. 


THE  FIRST  WITNESS. 

THE  first  witness  I  saw  wore  the  semblance  of  Washing 
ton,  and  his  name  was  the  Genius  of  Patriotism.  He  said : — 

What  shall  I  call  them  ?  I  once  called  them  fellow- 
citizens.  That  term  would  not  be  applicable  now. 
They  have  no  country  to  be  citizens  of.  They  have 
voted  away  their  country  to  the  priests  and  poli 
ticians.  Shall  I  call  them  patriots  ?  It  would  be  a  mock 
ery  to  call  them  patriots,  who,  like  Esau,  have  sold  their 
heritage  for  a  mess  of  pottage.  They  have  exchanged 
the  substantial  blessings  of  a  good  government,  justice, 
economy,  liberty  and  prosperity,  for  Mormonism,  free- 
loveism,  mesmerism,  spiritualism,  woman's  rights,  negro 
suffrage,  and  miscegenation,  i.  e.  lust,  infidelity,  insanity, 
folly,  crime,  chaos,  and  anarchy.  Ten  stars  blotted  out 
from  their  political  constellation, — white  silver  stars,  once 
as  bright  as  the  brightest  that  shone  there,  stars  which 
shed  upon  the  earth  the  brightest  genius  of  the  Caucasian 
race.  In  their  stead  they  propose  to  pin  to  the  sky,  with 
bayonets,  black  negro  stars.  Patriots !  No,  let  me  call 
them  slaves.  Each  one  has  around  his  neck  a  noose  with 
a  double  drawstring ;  the  preacher  has  hold  of  one  end,  the 
politician  pulls  the  other.  Slaves  I  yes,  I  will  show  them 
their  base  servility.  I  will  show  them  that  they  are  but 
the  menials  of  that  upstart  usurper,  the  bondautocrat. 
I  will  show  it  to  them,  so  that  when  their  children  grow 
up — (here  a  little  boy  playing  close  by  stopped  to  listen) 
play  on,  my  little  bright-eyed  boy ;  don't  listen  to  me. 
It  will  be  time  enough  for  thee  to  know  the  degradation 
which  thy  father  is  preparing  for  thee  many  years  hence. 
Yes,  thou  mightest  learn  it  many  years  hence,  and  still 
have  long  enough  time  to  suffer. 

Play  on  ;  I  will  not  show  thee  the  dark  and  ominous 
cloud  which  hangs  over  thy  future,  lest  the  bright  smile 
which  plays  on  thy  innocent,  unconscious  face,  should 


THE  FIRST   WITNESS.  23 

depart  forever.  For  so  plain  does  it  seem  to  me,  that  I 
think  even  your  little  eyes,  though  unused  to  looking  at 
things  in  the  distance,  could  tell  what  this  cloud  means. 
Play  on.  It  will  only  be  a  little  while  until  those  little 
hands  will  be  toiling  to  pay  back  to  the  bondautocrat  the 
money  he  lent  the  government  to  buy  thy  father,  to  be  sent 
to  the  war  and  lose  his  arm.  'Tis  only  a  thousand  dollars. 
The  bondautocrat's  wife  wants  a  shawl ;  'tis  the  lady's 
whim  and  she  must  have  it,  even  if  you  should  not  have 
a  dollar  left  to  buy  the  necessaries  of  life  for  the  partner 
of  your  degradation.  And  there  is  thy  little  playfellow  ; 
his  father  fought  for  thirteen  dollars  a  month,  and 
was  killed  the  third  month  of  the  service.  Thirty-nine 
dollars  !  Don't  the  bondautocracy  insure  life  cheap  ?  Your 
little  orphan  playfellow  will  soon  pay  that,  and  then  he 
can  help  you.  But  what  did  your  father  fight  for,  bleed 
for,  die  for  ?  To  please  the  preacher  and  politician,  the 
servile  ministers  of  bondautocracy.  What  did  they  fight 
for  ?  To  change  nature's  laws,  to  thwart  the  decrees  of 
Heaven,  to  make  the  black  man  white,  and  the  white  man. 
black.  Whither  art  thou  drifting,  my  boy  ?  Thy  lin 
eage,  thy  name,  whither  is  it  drifting,  my  boy?  That 
name  which  once  brought  the  pretty  blush  of  love  to  thy 
mother's  fair  cheek.  I  remember  how,  when  the  blush 
deepened  over  that  pure  white  skin,  the  hand  of  chastity 
chased  it  away ;  and  thus  did  it  come  and  go,  blush  after 
blush,  until  passion  subsided  in  the  sweet  pink-tinted  rose 
of  virtuous  love.  Where  will  be  the  blush  of  thy  bride, 
my  boy?  Ask  thy  father  who  has  been  fighting  to  win 
for  thee  a  negro  bride,  that  beautiful  blush  hid  under  the 
thick  rhinoceros  skin  of  the  negro.  Thy  father's  bride 
had  pretty  blue  eyes. 

"And  as  soft  was  her  eye 
As  the  blue  of  the  sky, 

When  morn's  distilling  its  dews  from  above; 
Its  brightness  was  veiled  in  the  mists  of  its  love." 

Where  will  be  the  pure  cerulean  blue  in  the  eye  of  thy 
bride  ?  Mixed  and  muddled  with  the  cold,  glassy  glare 
of  the  negro's  eye.  Well  could  thy  father  say  of  his 
pretty  bride, — 


24  THE   U  RE  AT  TRIAL. 

"All  the  stars  of  heaven  ; 
The  deep  blue  noon  of  night  lit  by  an  orb, 
Which  looks  a  spirit,  or  a  spirit's  world ; 
The  hues  of  twilight,  the  sun's  gorgeous  coming; 
His  setting  indescribable,  which  fills 
My  eye  with  pleasant  tears,  as  I  behold 
Him  sink  and  feel  my  heart  float  softly  with  him 
Along  that  western  paradise  of  clouds; 
The  forest  shade,  the  green  bough,  the  bird's  voice, 
The  vesper  bird's,  which  seems  to  sing  of  love: 
All  these  are  nothing  to  my  eyes  and  heart 
Like  Mary's  face ;  I  turn  from  earth  and  heaven 
To  gaze  on  it." 

What  wilt  thou  say  of  thy  bride,  my  boy  ?  the  negro 
weuch  thy  father  would  wed  thee  to  ? 

As  black  as  is  her  hide, 

So  low  must  be  my  pride, 

For  her  smell  is  as  strong  as  the  smell  of  a  skunk; 
How  can  I  wed  a  negro  unless  I  first  get  drunk  ? 

But  thy  name,  my  boy ;  thy  father's  name,  that  name 
to  which  thy  mother  gave  her  youth,  her  beauty,  her 
obedience,  and  her  love:  whither  is  drifting  that  name? 
Alas  !  I  see  it  on  the  black  tide  of  miscegenation  drift 
ing  to  oblivion.  You  may  violate  nature's  laws,  but 
you  cannot  escape  the  penalty.  God  has  made  your 
race  the  most  beautiful  in  the  world ;  and  if  you  attempt 
to  destroy  that  beauty,  he  will  blot  you  out.  Look  at 
that  filly  :  how  slender  and  tapering  are  her  legs ;  how 
springy  her  step  ;  her  broad,  intelligent  forehead,  lit  by 
big,  bright  eyes  !  Look  at  her  mane,  falling  in  silky 
waves  over  her  neck  !  How  gracefully,  too,  her  tail 
swings  in  the  air! — easily  adjusting  itself  to  every  new 
position,  as  if  to  steady  and  balance  all  her  actions. 
Among  all  the  animals  in  the  world  none  is  so  beautiful. 
Will  she  consort  with  the  dull,  stupid  ass?  Will  sho 
consent  to  be  the  mother  of  the  slow,  servile  mule?  See 
how  she  spurns  him  with  her  heels,  and  then  dashes 
wildly  over  the  plains.  See  how  she  turns  her  head 
back,  as  if  in  scorn, — hurling  at  the  ugly  beast  she  has 
left  in  the  distance  a  neigh  of  proud  mockery.  With  a 
higher  and  nobler  instinct  than  man's  boasted  reason, 
she  refuses  to  insult  nature  by  degrading  her  own  being 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  25 

and  marring  her  own  beauty.  Not  till  man,  imbruted 
man  (I  beg  the  brute's  pardon,  bedeviled  man),  wal 
lowed  in  the  filthy  mire  of  licentiousness,  and  smeared 
all  over  with  the  slime  of  cupidity,  until  not  only  his 
reason  is  perverted,  but  even  the  lower  instincts  of  his 
animal  nature  are  debased  and  degraded ;  I  say  not  till 
man  has  haltered  that  filly  with  his  iron  curb,  and 
chained  her  feet  with  hobbles,  will  she  yield  to  the  em 
braces  of  the  ugly  beast  which  nature  has  made  for  the 
drudgery  of  servitude. 

13ut  the  same  almighty  power  which  set  bounds  to  the 
waves  of  the  deep  has  said  to  the  waves  of  human  folly 
and  human  crime,  thus  far  shall  ye  go,  and  no  farther. 
The  Creator  has  denied  to  this  mongrel  race  the  power 
of  reproducing  its  kind.  So  of  all  mongrel  races.  In  a 
few  years  they  are  lost  in  extinction.  But  these  analyz 
ers  of  nature  teach  another  lesson,  which  the  people  of 
this  country  may  learn  to  their  own  profit.  For  whom 
is  miscegenation  intended  ?  for  what  class  of  the  people  ? 
"Will  the  pretty  daughters  of  the  bondautocrat  marry  a 
big  buck  negro  ?  Will  his  rich  son  kiss  the  thick,  husky 
lips  of  a  negro  wench?  Hardly,  I  think.  In  this  money- 
loving  age  the  one  can  buy  a  lover  of  her  own  choosing; 
the  other  too  can  buy  beauty  and  accomplishments  in  his 
own  circle,  and  a  half-dozen  pretty  mistresses  among  the 
poor  besides.  For  whom  then  is  it  intended?  Why, 
who  is  it  that  bears  all  the  wrongs  of  society?  Who 
has  to  dress  plainer,  eat  less,  and  work  harder  to  pay  the 
taxes  ?  Who  has  to  go  to  the  battle-field  when  war 
comes,  to  suffer,  to  bleed,  and  to  die  ?  on  whose  backs 
are  these  curses  saddled  ?  The  boudautocracy's?  Was 
there  ever  such  a  war  before  as  the  one  which  is  just 
over  ?  Were  taxes  ever  so  high  ?  Did  you  ever  see  the 
bondautocrats  dress  so  finely  and  fare  so  sumptuously  ? 
"Did  you  ever  see  them  before  spend  so  lavishly,  and  still 
have  so  much  to  spend  ?  Did  you  meet  their  sons  in  the 
ranks  of  the  army?  How  many  of  them  do  you  suppose 
got  killed  in  the  war  ?  How  many  are  hobbling  about 
on  crutches  ?  How  many  of  them  are  going  around  with 
one  or  both  arms  off,  begging  bread  ?  Think  you  that,  if 
they  were  all  mustered  into  line,  that  you  have  a  corpo- 
B  3 


26  THE   GREAT  TRIAL. 

ral's  guard?  I  think  I  have  a  guess  what  class  of  the 
people  miscegenation  is  intended  for.  But  if  I  tell,  it  will 
offend  the  bondautocrat  and  his  servile  ministers,  the 
preachers,  and  the  politicians.  I  happened  to  hear  the 
bargain  which  was  struck  between  them.  I  heard  the 
bondautocrat  say  to  the  priest  and  politician, — 

"  These  asses  (negro  slaves)  are  pretty  good  beasts  of 
burden ;  but  they  are  too  slow  for  the  times.  They  did 
very  well  in  old  fogy  times,  when  everything  had  to  be 
toted  or  hauled  in  wagons.  But,  my  dear  sirs,  in  this 
age  of  steam  and  electricity  they  are  too  slow,  entirely 
too  slow.  Besides,  they  are  too  ignorant  and  improvi 
dent;  their  slow  speed  and  wasteful  habits  take  too  much 
out  of  the  net  profits.  With  such  unprofitable  animals  as 
these  it  takes  at  least  three  generations  to  become  a  million 
aire.  My  good  friends,  can  this  matter  be  remedied  ? 
I  call  you  my  friends,  because  I  believe  you  are." 

"  Yes,  sir"  (both  speaking  at  once),  "  we  are  your 
friends  to  the  full  length  of  your  purse-strings." 

"  Well,  my  good  friends,  my  purse-strings  are  pretty 
long;  and  if  you  can  correct  this  evil,  they  will  be  much 
longer,  sirs,  much  longer.'7 

"We  have  already,"  answered  the  politician,  "pre 
pared  the  way  for  this  business.  The  negro  slaves  have 
been  set  free ;  and  now  if  we  can  manage  to  get  a 
cross  between  them  and  the  'poor  white  trash,'  we  will 
have  just  such  a  set  of  slaves  as  you  desire.  A  race 
of  mules,  sir,  between  the  ass  and  the  horse,  more 
sprightly  and  active,  sir,  than  the  ass,  and  more  dura- 
hie  and  submissive  to  burdens  than  the  horse.  My 
friend  the  preacher,  and  myself,  have  agreed  upon  a 
plan  which  will  make  the  thing  a  certain  success.  It 
shall  be  my  business  to  have  laws  enacted  requiring  the 
herd-pens  (free  schools),  where  the  colts  are  trained,  to  be 
common,  so  that  the  colts  of  the  horses  (white  children) 
and  the  colts  of  the  asses  (negro  children)  shall  be  trained 
together.  By  a  law  of  association  things  which  are 
kept  constantly  together  will  assimilate  in  disposition, 
temper,  and  feeling.  Besides  that,  the  tendency  of  all 
earthly  things  is  downward  to  the  dust.  The  young  of  all 
animals  are  more  ready  to  catch  vicious  habits  than  good 


THE  FIRST   WITNESS.  27 

ones.  Now,  sir,  upon  these  two  maxims  in  morals  we 
have  based  our  calculations  that  the  horse  colts  will  soon 
become  so  much  like  the  ass  colts,  that  the  natural 
repugnance  which  the  Creator  has  established  between 
them  will  be  so  far  overcome,  that  we  will  have  no  diffi 
culty  in  making  them  cohabit  with  each  other.  Thus 
you  see,  good  master  bondautocrat,  we  will  furnish  you 
with  a  race  of  mules  much  more  serviceable  than  the  asses, 
and  much  more  tractable  than  the  horses.  My  friend, 
the  priest  here,  who  will  have  the  superintendence  of 
those  herd-pens,  will  order  a  course  of  training  for  these 
colts  suitable  to  the  purpose." 

"You  just  bring  the  colts  all  together,"  answered  the 
preacher,  "  and  I  will  be  answerable  for  the  mixing.  I 
have  in  my  theological  chest  a  powder  which  will  act 
like  a  charm.  You  can  both  testify  how  successful  I 
have  been  in  medicining  the  old  horses.  Equality,  sugared 
with  universal  suffrage,  I  have  administered  to  them  with 
the  happiest  results.  I  have  laughed  in  my  sleeve,  gentle 
men,  and  I  have  no  doubt  you  have  too,  to  see  how 
easily  these  animals  are  deceived;  how  willing  they 
are  to  take  the  shadow  for  the  substance,  the  mere  prom 
ise  for  the  thing  itself.  Especially  have  I  been  amused 
to  see  how  you  lead  them  around.  Mr.  Politician,  I  have 
seen  many  of  them  haltered  and  led  to  the  polls  by  others 
to  vote ;  and  although  they  were  voting  the  sentiments 
of  others,  and  voting  away  their  own  liberties,  yet  did 
they  prance  around  and  neigh  as  proudly  as  if  they  were 
free,  and  had  no  halters  on.  I  then  thought  to  myself, 
Well,  it  won't  take  long  to  make  asses  of  you.  Indeed, 
although  they  still  retained  the  characteristics  of  horses, 
the  noise  they  made  bore  a  strong  resemblance  to  the 
braying  of  the  ass.  Now  the  new  powder  I  have  is  only 
the  expressed  essence  of  the  old  powder,  equality;  but 
its  chief  beauty  is  its  name,  miscegenation.  It  is  a  most 
admirable  thing.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  new ;  and  in 
these  times,  when  every  change  means  reform,  that  is  a 
great  deal.  I  know  plenty  of  people  who  would  be  dis 
gusted  with  mongrelism  ;  but  they  think  miscegenation 
the  sum  of  excellence.  How  much  there  is  now  a  days 
m  big,  high-sounding  words  !  I've  preached  many  a  ser- 


28  THE  GREAT  TRIAL. 

mon  to  these  people,  which  did  not  contain  a  single 
thought, — a  mere  jumble  of  big  words  harmoniously  ar 
ranged,  smoothly  connected  and  musically  spoken ;  and 
although  they  did  not  learn  a  thing  from  them,  for  there 
was  nothing  in  them  to  learn,  yet  did  they  praise  them 
to  the  very  echo.  Only  the  other  day  I  preached  a  sermon, 
which  I  prefaced  with  the  declaration  that  nobody  could 
be  a  Christian  who  did  not  understand  theology.  My 
discourse  was  made  up  of  a  number  of  fine  sentences 
which  I  had  picked  out  of  the  writings  of  learned  divines 
who  had  written  in  defense  of  our  sect.  Indeed,  I  had 
to  laugh  at  the  thing  myself,  for  it  looked  like  Joseph's 
coat  of  many  colors  ;  nay,  worse,  for  the  different  patches 
had  been  patched  on  without  regard  to  either  harmony  or 
contrast.  Big  and  little,  white  and  gray,  blue  and  green, 
were  pinned  together  just  as  I  had  grabbed  them  up  out 
of  my  old  sermon-bag ;  really,  I  don't  know  which 
amused  me  most,  the  folly  of  the  sermon,  or  the  igno 
rance  and  credulity  of  my  hearers.  They  called  it  splen 
did,  grand,  beautiful,  eloquent.  I  heard  afterward  that 
one  of  the  congregation  objected  to  it,  and  made  this 
very  plausible  complaint  of  it,  that  he  didn't  understand 
theology,  and  therefore  could  not  be  a  Christian.  He 
went  on  to  controvert  it  by  some  quotations  from  that 
old  fable-book,  the  Bible.  He  said  that  he  had  learned 
from  that  old  book,  that  the  way  of  the  Christian,  though 
but  a  narrow  path,  is  yet  so  plain  that  a  wayfaring  man, 
even  if  he  be  a  fool,  need  not  err  therein.  He  said  that 
he  had  further  read  that  the  Author  of  Christianity  him 
self,  when  on  earth  having  met  with  one  who  was  blind, 
touched  his  eyes,  and  immediately  the  sight  of  the  blind 
man  was  restored.  It  gave  such  joy  to  the  blind  to  be 
able  to  see,  that  he  went  about  telling  all  whom  he  met 
and  praising  his  deliverer.  But  the  scribes  and  Pharisees 
said  to  the  man  whose  sight  had  been  restored,  Who  was 
he  that  opened  your  eyes,  and  how  did  he  do  it  ?  tell  us 
the  science,  the  philosophy  of  the  thing  ;  make  the  things 
plain  according  to  our  doctrines,  our  theology.  He  an 
swered  them,  I  neither  know  who  he  was  nor  how  he  did 
it;  but  this  1  know,  that  whereas  I  was  blind  now  I 
see.  But  the  Pharisees  reviled  him,  and  cast  him  out 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  29 

because  he  believed  his  sight  was  restored,  when  he 
could  not  tell  who  did  it  and  how  it  was  done.  I  was 
not  a  little  disturbed,"  said  the  priest,  "  when  I  saw  my 
good  horses  so  closely-cornered.  I  was  afraid  this  fellow 
would  put  some  bad  notions  into  their  head,  and  they 
would  not  be  so  serviceable  to  me  as  they  had  been.  How 
ever,  I  was  soon  relieved,  for  directly  they  laid  back  their 
ears,  and  kicked  the  fellow  away  as  an  infidel  and  heretic." 

The  politician  smiled,  and  remarked  that  answer  was 
very  conclusive,  if  not  very  logical. 

"  My  dear  sir,"  answered  the  priest,  "  the  conclusion 
is  the  end  of  logic,  as  it  is  of  everything  else." 

"  I  was  just  thinking,"  said  the  politician,  "  that  it  looks 
a  little  inconsistent  in  your  Protestant  sects,  who  were 
born  of  heresy,  and  have  lived  all  your  lives  under  the 
damning  curse  of  excommunication,  to  be  casting  out 
heretics." 

"  People  who  live  in  glass  houses,"  said  the  priest, 
"  ought  not  to  throw  stones.  I  observe  that  nowadays 
when  you  can't  answer  the  arguments  of  your  political 
opponents  in  your  deliberative  bodies,  that  you  call  them 
rebels  and  traitors,  and  then  expel  them.  You  yourself 
voted  to  expel  a  member  of  Congress  just  in  the  manner 
stated  above.  Now,  if  I  remember  rightly,  you  told  me 
once  that  your  grandfather  fell  at  the  battle  of  Lexing 
ton,  just  after  the  loyal  General  Pitcairn,  of  his  majesty's 
service,  had  called  out  to  him  and  his  comrades,  '  Lay 
down  your  arms  and  surrender,  you  rebels  and  traitors  !' 
If  we  commit  the  same  offense,  we  have  at  least  some 
excuse  for  it.  Our  loyalty  is  a  little  older  than  yours, — 
over  two  centuries.  Yours  is  scarcely  more  than  three 
score  and  ten  ;  the  limit  of  human  life.  Indeed,  I  know 
among  you  some  of  the  most  noisy  and  clamorous  at  that, 
whose  loyalty  was  very  questionable  at  the  breaking  out 
of  the  late  war." 

"  My  friend,  you  speak  with  a  good  deal  of  warmth : 
coolly,"  replied  the  politician. 

"Sir,  you  must  excuse  me,"  replied  the  priest,  still  a 
little  tart.  "I  can  bear  to  be  told  of  my  faults  by  an 
honest  man  ;  but  to  be  lectured  by  one  who  has  com 
mitted  the  same  offense,  and  that  too  in  a  more  flagrant 

3* 


30  THE   GREAT  TRIAL. 

and  outrageous  manner,  is  enough  to  nettle  the  patience 
of  a  saint." 

"And that,"  said  the  politician,  smiling,  "is  more  than 
you  profess  to  be." 

This  hit  was  so  palpable  that  the  priest  laughed,  and 
then  remarked:  "My  dear  sir,  let  us  leave  off  this  un 
profitable  discussion,  and  turn  to  the  herd-pen  business. 
This,"  he  added,  "if  you  will  allow  me  to  use  that 
eminently  philosophical,  practical,  and  expressive  phrase 
of  the  times,  will,  I  think,  pay  better." 

"  My  dear  sir,"  put  in  the  bondautocrat,  who  had  been 
occupied  during  this  discussion  on  some  business  calcula 
tion ;  "repeat  that  phrase.  It  falls  on -my  ear  as  does 
the  soft  restrained  'no'  of  the  yielding  damsel  upon  the 
ear  of  her  lover.  Make  it  pay!  Ah,  there  is.  music  in 
that.  I  hear  in  it,  sir,  the  jingle  of  gold,  and  gold  means 
loyalty,  power,  honor,  office,  royalty.  Loyalty,  why,  bless 
me,  I  took  contracts  from  the  government  to  furnish  sup 
plies.  I  had  out  my  agents,  I  don't  know  how  many,  to 
buy  provisions,  horses,  and  I'd  like  to  have  said  men,  but 
I  guess  the  word  horse  will  cover  that  species  too ;  in 
deed,  we  bought  some  of  them  almost  as  cheap.  Loyalty ! 
bless  the  word,  it  made  my  pile  just  ten  times  what  it 
was,  with  a  fair  prospect  for  doubling  every  five*  years: 
that  beats  compound  interest  two  to  one.  Power  !  why, 
my  friends,  am  I  not  just  making  a  contract  with  you  to 
make  a  new  breed  of  mules,  to  create  a  race  of  slaves 
fit  for  this  enlightened  and  progressive  age?  Power, 
gentlemen  !  are  we  not  about  to  harmonize  discords,  rec 
oncile  antipathies,  and  reverse  the  order  of  nature  ;  aye, 
more,  annul  the  decrees  of  Heaven  itself?  Who  will  have 
the  hardihood  not  to  bow  down  and  worship  our  god? 
Whoever  he  may  be,  let  him  remember  the  fate  of  the  ob 
stinate  Hebrew  who  was  cast  into  the  lions'  den." 

"  My  good  friend,"  interrupted  the  preacher,  agitated 
and  trembling,  "  don't  repeat  that  sentence.  There  is  no 
music  in  it  to  my  ears." 

"Why,  what's  the  matter,  friend  priest?"  asked  the 
bondautocrat.  "  What  means  all  this  consternation  ? 
Didn't  you  tell  me  that  you  had  no  faith  in  that  old  book 
of  Jewish  fables  ?" 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  31 

"I  have  none,  sir,"  answered  the  priest;  "  but  even 
devils  believe  and  tremble.  Did  not  even  the  fierce  lions 
tremble  and  crouch  before  the  gaze  of  the  friendless  cap 
tive,  who  .refused  to  bow  down  and  worship  the  heathen's 
god  ?  It  was  the  same  Daniel  who  was  sent  for  to  inter 
pret  the  vision  of  judgment  which  startled  the  impious 
Belshazzar  from  his  licentious  revelries.  A  mysterious 
hand  passed  over  the  wall,  leaving  behind  it  a  blaze  of 
fire.  The  godless  king  turned  pale  and  shook  like  a  man 
with  ague ;  the  Chaldean  soothsayers  and  interpreters 
trembled  before  the  fearful  vision  :  not  so  the  prophet 
who  had  refused  to  worship  the  god  of  men  and  kings. 
He  boldly  dipped  into  the  quivering  flame  the  pencil  of 
prophecy,  and  as  he  traced  it  along  the  wall  letters  of  fire 
followed  it,  blazing  forth  the  doom  of  the  Chaldean  em 
pire,  MENE,  MENE,  TEKEL,  UPHARSIN.  Now,  when  I  re 
member  that  the  offense  of  the  wicked  king  was  'the 
Lord  thy  God,  in  whose  hands  thy  breath  is  and  whose 
are  all  thy  ways,  hast  thou  not  glorified,'  I  thought  I  saw 
the  same  dreadful  hand  on  that  wall." 

The  bondautocrat  with  a  smile  of  contempt  turned  away 
from  the  preacher,  and  addressing  himself  to  the  politician, 
said:  "  Friend,  I  see  we  will  have  to  manage  this  busi 
ness  ourselves.  It  is  a  bold  undertaking,  and  will  require 
stout  hearts  to  carry  it  through.  This  chicken-livered 
priest  will  be  of  no  service  to  us.  Well,"  he  added,  "  the 
fewer  agents  we  have  the  better  it  will  pay  them." 

"  The  better  it  will  pay,"  repeated  the  priest,  recover 
ing  from  his  fright, — "the  better  it  will  pay.  Pay,  pay! 
that's  what  I  work  for,  that's  what  I  live  for,  that's  what 
I  preach  for.  Pay,  pay:  what  will  you  have  me  to  do?" 

"Go  to  the  devil,"  said  the  bondautocrat,  with  a  sneer. 

"  Go  to  the  devil, "repeated  the  priest:  "  go  to  the  devil. 
Willitpay  ?  Will  it  pay  ?  Well,  wait  a  little,"  he  added, 
"  till  1  catch  my  breath,  and  get  over  this  scare,  and  I 
think  I  will  be  ready  to  start." 

"  I  am  sure,"  said  the  politician,  "  you  will  have  to  keep 
this  man  in  your  service,  for  he  is  prepared  to  go  a  little 
further  in  the  business  than  I  am." 

"  Well,  Mr.  Priest,"  said  the  bondautocrat,  "  let  us  hear 
Boipething  more  of  this  mule-breeding  business." 


32  THE   GREAT   TRIAL. 

"  As  a  proof  of  my  capacity  to  serve  you  in  this  matter," 
said  the  priest,  "  I  was  just  giving  you  an  illustration  of 
my  success  in  horse  training.  When  our  friend  here,  the 
politician,  shall  have  all  the  colts  gathered  into  the  herft- 
pens,  I  will  proceed  to  administer  the  powder  I  spoke  of, 
viz.,  miscegenation.  As  the  thing  is  repulsive  to  the 
natural  taste,  it  will  be  necessary  to  disguise  it  a  little 
with  an  admixture  of  something  more  palatable.  You've 
seen  likely  those  little  slices  of  bread  and  butter  called 
Sunday-school  books.  The  flour  these  things  are  made 
of  is  brought  from  the  mill  of  truth:  but  falsehood  is  so 
largely  mixed  in  the  dough  as  to  change  both  the  flavor 
and  effect  of  this  bread  upon  the  system.  Once  get  the 
taste  perverted,  and  you  have  a  morbid  appetite  which 
you  can  modify  gradually  to  suit  any  kind  of  food  you 
may  wish  to  give.  If  you  will  examine  these  pieces,  you 
will  find  them  not  true  and  natural,  but  entirely  artificial; 
the  bread  itself  made  out  of  cheat,  and  the  butter  nothing 
more  than  the  milky  whey  of  phariseeism.  To  drop  the 
figure,  you  will  find  in  reading  these  books  that  they  con 
tain  no  true  picture  of  human  life  ;  but  the  characters  who 
figure  in  them  are  all  either  little  angels  or  little  devils. 
It  don't  take  children  long  to  find  out  this  imposition,  and 
then  one  of  two  results  must  follow  :  either  they  will  be 
lieve  nothing  and  become  infidel,  or  else  with  that  selfish 
ness  so  common  to  human  nature,  they  will  assume  the 
good  character  and  become  Pharisees,  which  is  only 
another  form  of  infidelity.  For,  once  wrap  around  a  human 
soul  the  phylactery  of  pharisaism,  and  you  have  made  it 
impervious  to  truth.  You  can  hardly  persuade  one  to  take 
medicine  who  is  sure  in  his  own  mind  that  he  is  not  sick. 
The  next  medicine  we  administer,  and  it  is  an  admirable 
preparation,  is  the  yellow-back  novel.  Equally  far  from 
nature  and  truth  as  the  other,  this  is  intended  to  act  upon 
other  organs  and  develop  other  passions,  to  stir  up  licen 
tious  lusts,  and  to  fill  the  mind  with  lascivious  images. 
These  act  like  a  charm.  After  reading  a  few  of  these 
they  are  unable  to  restrain  their  animal  passions  at  all, 
but  are  ready  for  anything  which  will  indulge  them,  how 
ever  brutal  it  may  be.  But  the  very  best  thing  to  facili 
tate  this  business  will  be  to  introduce  into  these  herd- 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  33 

pens  (common  schools),  as  guides  and  leaders  for  the 
colts,  a  new  species  of  mares,  which  are,  I  believe,  natives 
of  this  country.  The  unnatural  shape  of  these  big-  ugly 
mares  serves  to  deceive  both  the  horse  colts  and  the  ass 
colts,  so  that  both  can  be  easily  persuaded  to  follow  them. 
By  nature  they  are  abortions,  brought  into  this  breathing 
world  before  their  time,  scarce  half  made  up.  They  are 
raised  in  the  mountains  of  pharisaism,  and  fed  upon 
laurel,  nightshade,  hellebore,  and  other  noxious  weeds  of 
infidelity.  They  don't  often  breed;  but  whether  it  is 
because  their  hideousness  makes  them  disgusting  to  the 
other  sex,  or  because  being  so  unnatural  they  are  devoid 
of  those  affections  and  passions  which  lead  other  animals 
to  reproduce  their  kind,  has  not  been  determined.  But 
the  devil  or  some  other  enemy  of  this  world  has  furnished 
them  with  big,  filthy-looking  udders,  in  which  settles  the 
distilled  essence  of  the  poisonous  herbs  they  feed  upon. 
These  udders  are  supplied  with  as  many  teats  as  the  dif 
ferent  kind  of  poisonous  herbs  they  eat.  Some  of  these 
creatures  have  only  one  teat,  and  it  gives  out  a  milk  which 
is  according  to  the  herb  it  feeds  on,  either  mesmerism, 
spiritualism,  freeloveism,  mormonism,  equality,  or  what 
not.  But  others  have  all  these  teats,  and  in  addition  oiut 
other  big  black  one  protruding  from  the  bottom  of  the 
udder,  and  reaching  nearly  to  the  ground.  There  seems 
to  be  a  duct  or  channel  of  communication  leading  from  all 
the  other  teats  into  this  one,  and  pouring  into  it  all  their 
different  kinds  of  poison.  Here  they  are  mixed  and  dis 
tilled  into  the  quintessence  of  poison.  This  teat  is  mis 
cegenation,  and  when  pressed  or  sucked  it  gives  out  a 
yellow,  sickly,  fetid  matter  called  mongrelism.  I've  no 
doubt  both  you  gentlemen  know  from  the  description  the 
animals  I  allude  to." 

"  I  would  take  them  to  be,"  said  the  politician,  with  a 
knowing  smile,  "  those  animals  commonly  called  the 
strong-minded.  If,"  continued  the  politician,  "  you  can 
once  get  the  colts  to  follow  these  creatures  and  suck  them, 
I  am  sure  we  would  have  no  further  trouble.  The  ass 
colts  being  naturally  low  and  near  the  ground  will  suck 
them  without  any  difficulty  ;  but  the  horse,  which  nature 
has  lifted  higher  above  the  ground,  will  not  bo  brought  to 


34  THE   GREAT  TRIAL. 

it  so  easily.  It  will  be,  in  the  first  place,  a  little  incon 
venient  ;  and  then  there  is  a  something  in  the  nature  of 
all  animals  except  snakes,  a  pride  which  rebels  against 
the  idea  of  stooping,  groveling,  crawling." 

The  bondautocrat  here  remarked,  in  an  under-tone, 
"I  think  I  know  some  exceptions  to  this  rule  besides 
snakes." 

"Your  remark,  Mr.  Politician,"  put  in  the  preacher, 
"brings  out  a  fact,  which  shows  how  perfectly  those 
animals  are  suited  to  our  purpose.  You  see  they  have 
other  teats  higher  up,  and  coming  down  at  intervals: 
mesmerism,  spiritualism,  freeloveism,  etc.  These  other 
teats  they  can  suck  without  getting  on  their  knees,  and 
besides,  they  are  not  quite  so  disgusting ;  so  you  see  a 
skillful  feeder  will  work  them  down  so  gradually  that 
they  will  get  on  their  knees  before  they  are  aware  of  it." 

"  But,  gentlemen,"  said  the  bondautocrat,  "  what  will 
become  of  my  colts  ?  tell  me.  Since  this  thought  has 
come  into  my  mind  I  don't  much  like  the  business." 

"Mr.  Bondautocrat"  (both  speaking  at  once),  "you 
need  give  yourself  no  uneasiness  on  that  score.  Why, 
my  dear  sir,"  continued  the  politician,  "you  can  have  a 
nice  little  herd-pen  of  your  own,  where  your  colts  can  be 
trained  to  your  own  mind.  Indeed,  neither  Mr.  Priest 
nor  myself  expect  to  train  our  colts  after  the  fashion  we 
have  been  describing,  any  further  than  will  be  necessary 
to  fit  them  to  take  our  place  when  we  are  gone.  We  will 
use  the  '  poor  white  trash'  for  this  purpose,  sir ;  '  the 
poor  white  trash,'  the  scrub  breed  which  we  bought  up 
to  do  the  drudgery  of  the  w^r,  the  vulgar  masses,  sir,  on 
whose  shoulders  we  are  quietly  shifting  the  expenses  of 
that  same  war,  together  with  the  heavily  accumulating 
costs  of  government.  It  is  astonishing,  sir,  how  well  all 
these  things  are  working  together  to  further  our  plans. 
The  war  was  the  most  fortunate  event  of  all.  It  created 
the  necessity  for  an  immense  amount  of  money.  That 
money  you  gentlemen  loaned  to  the  government  at  a 
pretty  high  rate  of  interest ;  indeed,  the  debt  was  more 
than  doubled  in  this  way.  The  government  gave  its 
promise  to  pay  for  many  a  dollar  which  wasn't  worth  a 
half-dollar ;  I  am  sure  that  more  than  half  of  the  debt 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  35 

was  made  by  these  three  things, — frauds,  speculations, 
and  the  exorbitant  premiums  the  government  paid  for  the 
money  it  borrowed." 

To  this  the  bondautocrat  answered  rather  angrily,  "I 
do  not  see  the  drift  of  your  argument,  sir.  Do  you  mean 
to  question  my  integrity,  or  the  validity  of  my  claims 
against  the  government?" 

"Not  by  any  means,  my  dear  sir,"  said  the  politician  ; 
"I  meant  simply  to  state  a  fact;  and  that  fact,  so  far 
from  being  derogatory  to  you,  is  one  of  the  highest  com 
pliments  to  your  financial  ability.  You  managed  to  loan 
your  money  to  the  government  for  more  than  double 
what  it  was  worth,  exacting,  at  the  same  time,  a  condi 
tion,  that  is,  exemption  from  taxation,  which  will  double 
it  again  after  a  while.  My  dear  sir,  I  thought  we  politi 
cians  were  sharp  fellows,  but  this  beats  us  three  to  one. 
By  the  way,  I've  thought  often  that  your  profession  did 
not  deal  as  liberally  by  ours  as  you  ought  to.  It  was  by 
and  through  us  that  you  have  obtained  those  special 
privileges  which  make  you  the  ruling  power  of  this 
country  ;  and  yet  when  we  ask  for  some  liberal  remuner 
ation,  such  as  will  enable  us  to  live  handsomely  when 
the  shifting  whims  of  the  rabble  shall  retire  us  from  office, 
you  refuse  it,  and  we  are  compelled  to  sell  ourselves  to 
some  new  master,  as  we  did  not  long  ago  to  the  whisky 
monopolists,  in  order  to  make  the  rise.  I  cannot  but 
think,  sir,  that  in  this  matter  you  stand  in  your  own 
light.  It  increases  the  number  of  your  profession  and 
puts  more  burdens  on  the  backs  of  the  people." 

"  You  politicians,"  retorted  the  bondautocrat,  sharply, 
"  are  like  leeches,  you  are  never  satisfied  ;  your  cry  is  all 
the  time,  more.  You  are  a  reckless  set  of  spendthrifts  ; 
your  extravagant  demands  would  break  us  up  if  we  did 
not  manage  by  skillful  stratagems  to  shift  the  burden  on 
somebody.  Whom  will  we  put  the  burden  on,  if  not  the 
people?  Don't  be  squeamish  about  the  matter.  The 
people  have  many  backs,  good,  strong,  square  backs  too. 
What  else  are  they  fit  for  but  to  bear  burdens?  As  a 
proof,  look  how  patiently  they  submit.  Like  the  camels, 
they  even  get  down  on  their  knees  to  receive  them.  Ay, 
worse  ;  for  when  the  camel  is  overloaded  he  will  refu.se 


36  THE   GREAT  TRIAL. 

to  get  up  ;  but  these  creatures,  when  you  overload  them, 
will  ask  you  to  change  their  natures  and  make  out  of 
them  a  mongrel  race  of  mules,  that  they  may  be  better 
fitted  for  their  servitude.  Don't  talk  to  me,  sir,  about  the 
people,  This  stuff  may  do  to  tickle  their  ears,  while  you 
impose  some  new  burden  on  them  ;  but  to  one  who  sees 
their  menial  subserviency,  such  twaddle  is  disgusting. 
The  fact  is  I  can't  see  how  you  are  going  to  make  mules 
by  crossing  such  creatures  with  asses,  for  they  are  no 
better  than  asses  themselves.  Why,  think  of  this  fact 
for  one  moment.  In  the  brief  space  of  six  years,  at  one 
dash  I  might  say,  burdens  have  been  placed  on  their 
backs,  such  burdens  as  it  took  the  governments  of 
Europe,  which  you  call  despotic,  a  hundred  years  to  put 
upon  the  backs  of  their  serfs.  Yes,  in  the  brief  space  of 
six  years  the  burden  of  debt  has  been  piled  up' to  nearly 
three  billions,  the  annual  expenses  quadrupled,  tens  of 
thousands  of  idle,  vagabond  negroes  fed  and  clothed  at 
their  cost,  the  original  plan  of  their  government  by  mcar.s 
of  States  abolished,  and  military  satrapies  set  up  in  their 
stead  ;  their  ancient  Constitution  utterly  ignored  in  their 
national  assembly,  the  chief  executive  office  and  the 
supreme  judiciary  paralyzed  by  legislative  restrictions, 
and  a  system  of  social  law  adopted  which  proposes  the 
conversion  of  their  own  children  into  a  mongrel  race  of 
mules,  that  they  may  be  the  better  able  to  carry  the  vast 
additional  burdens  which  inevitably  belong  to  their 
future.  I  venture  the  assertion,  without  fear  of  success 
ful  contradiction  by  any  facts  which  have  accrued  in  the 
past,  or  which  may  accrue  in  the  future,  that  no  people  in 
Europe  would  permit  so  many  and  so  great  changes  in 
their  political  and  social  systems  without  a  convulsion 
which  would  swallow  up  the  thrones  of  their  royal  mas 
ters.  I  ought  perhaps  to  except  the  serfs  of  Russia,  who 
never  had  any  idea  of  what  freedom  is  ;  indeed,  I  was  not 
a  little  amused  to  see  them  receive  not  long  since  writh 
acclamations  of  joy  the  edict  of  their  royal  master,  that 
henceforth  he  would  be  the  one,  sole,  absolute  master  of 
his  people,  and  that  he  would  hold  in  his  own  hands,  and 
at  his  disposal,  the  life  and  property  of  every  man,  woman, 
and  child  in  his  vast  empire.  'Tis  true  he  did  this  in  the 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  37 

name  of  freedom,  but  the  object  of  the  czar  was  not  that 
the  serfs  might  be  free,  but  that  their  masters  might  be 
slaves ;  not  that  any  man  in  Russia  might  be  free,  but 
that  every  man  in  Russia  might  be  a  slave  ;  something 
after  your  mode  of  freeing  the  negroes  in  the  South,  Mr. 
Politician,"  said  the  bondautocrat,  with  a  smile.  "Poor 
old  decrepit  Austria  !  I  would  except  her  too,  if  she  was 
not  beneath  all  notice.  Indeed,  her  people  have  been 
slaves  so  long,  even  tradition  and  fables  give  no  account 
of  when  they  were  free.  Gentlemen,"  continued  the 
bondautocrat,  "  when  I  consider  all  these  facts,  notorious, 
glaring  facts,  this  mule-breeding  business  seems  to  me  to 
be  a  work  of  supererogation,  a  useless  expense.  Nor 
am  I  in  the  habit,  like  you,  Mr.  Politician,  of  spending 
money  when  there  is  no  necessity  for  it.  That  system 
of  doing  business  don't  pay.  So,"  continued  the  bondau 
tocrat,  turning  to  the  priest  with  a  smile  of  mingled  pity 
and  contempt,  "  we  will  save  you  the  trouble  and  ex 
pense  of  your  proposed  visit  to  his  Satanic  majesty.  I 
think  it  won't  pay.  Pray,  sir,  what  do  you  think  about 
it?  Speak  out."" 

"  Gentlemen,"  answered  the  priest,  after  some  little 
reflection,  "  it  seems  to  me  that  you  have  only  looked  at 
the  surface  of  things.  I  am  better  acquainted  with 
the  people  than  either  of  you.  I  have  been  more  inti 
mately  associated  with  them  ;  I've  had  more  to  do 
with  them.  This  ignorance  and  frivolity  you  see 
floating  on  the  surface  are  not  everything.  No,  there 
is  a  deep  current,  a  soul,  a  wave  of  fire,  under  the  drift 
you've  been  looking  at.  Let  some  Hampden,  some  Lu 
ther,  some  Voltaire,  some  Patrick  Henry,  with  the  hand 
of  inspiration,  pull  this  drift  apart  and  let  into  the  smoul 
dering  fire,  beneath,  the  air  of  truth,  and  you  would  see 
a  conflagration  such  as  the  world  has  never  witnessed. 
Then,  sir,  the  priest  would  have  plenty  of  company  to 
the  devil.  We  would  start  in  a  hurry,  sirs,  pay  or  no 
pay.  Nor  would  we  be  long  in  going,  for  the  human 
soul,  when  once  waked  up,  is  a  consuming  fire  to  those 
who  have  trifled  with  it  arid  betrayed  its  confidence. 
The  condition  of  things  you  see  around  you  is  not  natural, 
but  all  artificial.  It  has  been  brought  about  gradually 

4 


38  THE    GREAT   TRIAL. 

and  by  a  long  system  of  training.  I  know  this  because 
I've  had  a  heap  to  do  with  the  training;  and  besides,  I 
can  well  remember  when  things  were  not  as  they  now  are. 
I  can  remember  when  it  was  necessary  for  a  preacher  to 
be  a  Christian,  for  the  representative  of  the  people  to 
be  a  patriot,  and  when  the  rich  man,  in  order  to  be  popular 
and  influential,  had  to  be  honest,  kind,  and  benevolent. 
But  now  the  priest  is  most  esteemed  who  evades  the  truth 
of  Christianity  entirely,  who  makes  the  strait  and  narrow 
path  so  broad  and  crooked  that  the  world  can  go  to 
heaven  without  going  out  of  its  own  highway.  The 
politician  is  most  popular  who  is  most  accomplished  in 
trickery,  most  reckless  in  disregarding  the  constitution  of 
his  country,  and  most  successful  in  striking  sharp  bar 
gains  with  the  lobby  agents  of  moneyed  monopolies. 
And  the  respect  which  is  paid  to  the  rich  man  is  deter 
mined  not  by  his  integrity  and  benevolence,  but  by  the 
number  of  his  thousands  or  millions,  whether  they  have 
been  accumulated  by  honest  industry  and  good  sense,  or 
by  fraud  (buying  Congress,  for  instance,  to  pass  some  law 
to  give  him  the  monopoly  of  his  business),  or  directly 
filching  from  the  poor  their  hard-earned  trash.  Do  not 
delude  yourselves  with  the  idea  that  all  these  changes 
have  been  brought  about  without  a  cause.  Nor  must 
you  forget  the  fact  that  there  are  causes  sufficient,  if  rightly 
used,  to  change  the  whole  current  of  events  :  yea,  amply 
sufficient  to  undo  all  that  we  propose  to  do,  and  to  damn 
us  besides.  It  is  our  profession,  gentlemen,  which  has 
prepared  the  people  for  the  present  condition  of  things. 
The  politician  complains  of  not  being  paid  for  his  ser 
vices  in  this  matter,  and  arrogates  to  himself  the  credit  of 
having  done  it  all.  But  the  truth  is  we  have  done  more 
than  the  politician  and  get  worse  pay.  We  have  put  the 
people  to  sleep,  we  have  administered  to  them  the  fatal 
opiates  of  infidelity.  Indeed,  I  never  preach  to  them 
without  being  reminded  of  that  graphic  description  of 
one  of  the  prophets,  'They  have  eyes,  but  they  see  not; 
ears,  but  they  hear  not.'  For  instance,  this  mule-breeding 
business  of  ours  is  a  deliberate  purpose  and  plan  to  degrade 
their  offspring  and  fit  them  for  perpetual  servitude.  The 
thing  is  so  palpable  t;>at  if  they  were  not  blind  they  would 


THE  FIZST    WITNESS.  39 

see  it,  if  they  were  not  deaf  they  would  hear  it.  Suppose 
their  eyes  were  opened  for  a  moment,  their  ears  un 
stopped,  and  they  should  see  and  hear  these  things  as 
they  are.  Gentlemen,  it  would  be  better  for  us  if  we  had 
a  millstone  around  our  necks,  and  were  cast  into  the 
middle  of  the  sea." 

"Mr.  Preacher,"  said  the  politician,  "I  think  you  are 
arrogating  to  yourself  claims  which  do  not  belong  to  you. 
It  was  the  dogma  of  equality  and  universal  suffrage 
taught  by  us  which  has  brought  about  the  present  con 
dition  of  things.'' 

"My  dear  sir,"  answered  the  priest,  "the  dogma  of 
equality  you  claim  was  held  and  taught  by  the  fathers 
of  the  country,  the  men  who  created  and  organized  our 
government.  Now,  if  what  you  say  is  true,  why  did  not 
the  present  condition  of  things  exist  then  ?  Why  would 
not  the  same  cause  produce  the  same  effect  then  as  now  ? 
Why  did  not  the  founders  of  the  government  provide,  in 
its  organization,  for  everybody  to  vote  ?  Why  did  they 
not  liberate  their  slaves,  and  let  them  vote  ?  Gentlemen," 
continued  the  priest,  "  you  seem  to  be  under  a  misappre 
hension  in  regard  to  the  whole  matter.  I  think  it  will  be 
better,  before  we  go  any  further,  to  set  the  thing  right. 
To  my  mind  there  are  difficulties  in  our  way,  which  you 
don't  seem  to  see  at  all.  The  truth  is  this,  the  whole 
doctrine  of  equality  is  a  humbug.  The  men  who  framed 
this  government  didn't  believe  a  word  of  it.  This  is 
clear,  first,  from  a  history  of  their  actions  ;  they  never 
attempted  to  carry  it  into  the  practical  operations  of  their 
government,  either  State  or  national.  Secondly,  from 
the  very  nature  of  the  case  it  was  impossible ;  the  causes 
which  lead  to  the  principal  emigration  to  this  country 
grew  out  of  that  great  revolution  in  the  affairs  of  Europe 
commonly  called  the  Reformation.  Almost  every  state 
of  Europe  become  a  battle-field  in  the  war  between  the 
Catholic  Church  and  the  Reformers.  This  was  the 
greatest  awakening  of  the  human  mind  the  world  had 
ever  seen.  The  art  of  printing  had  been  discovered. 
The  Bible  had  been  translated  into  the  vulgar  tongues  of 
the  different  nations  of  Europe.  When  the  people  com 
pared  its  truth,  i*s  purity,  and  its  justice  with  the  errors, 


40  THE   GREAT  TRIAL. 

the  licentiousness,  and  tlie  tyranny  of -the  church,  they 
abandoned  the  church  by  thousands.  So  wonderful  was 
the  revolution  it  brought  about  that  in  an  incredibly  short 
space  of  time  the  Reformers  had  built  up  great  parties  in 
all  the  kingdoms  of  Europe.  Indeed,  every  state  was 
divided.  In  one  state  the  church  party  held  the  power, 
and  in  another  the  Protestant  party.  The  party  which 
held  the  power  in  any  one  state  would  persecute  the 
other  party  :  they  would  impose  civil  and  political  disa 
bilities  ;  indeed,  this  was  the  mildest  form  of  persecution. 
The  block,  the  rack,  the  wheel,  the  dungeon,  and  in  short 
every  species  of  torture,  was  resorted  to,  to  destroy 
heresy  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  break  down  popery  on 
the  other.  Catholic  France,  for  instance,  persecuted  the 
Protestants;  Protestant  England,  on  the  other  hand, 
persecuted  the  Catholics.  Men  living  in  a  country  where 
their  religion  was  not  the  prevailing  religion,  found  it 
necessary  to  do  one  of  three  things:  to  recant  publicly 
and  abandon  their  religion,  to  hide  their  faith,  or  else  to 
endure  the  pains  and  penalties  of  the  laws  enacted  against 
them.  Men  who  had  faith  in  their  religion,  and  the 
moral  heroism  to  maintain  their  faith  at  every  cost,  deter 
mined  to  risk  the  Indian  scalping-knife  and  the  wild  beasts 
of  the  American  forests  rather  than  to  yield  the  truth. 

"  Such  were  the  men,  men  conscientiously  and  heroically 
Christians,  who  settled  this  country  and  founded  our 
government.  These  men,  with  the  light  of  the  Bible  to 
guide  them,  could  no  more  believe  that  all  men  are  equal 
than  you  and  I,  with  the  light  of  the  sun  to  guide  us, 
could  believe  that  all  men  are  of  the  same  color.  The 
Bible  from  beginning  to  end,  both  the  Old  and  New  Testa 
ments,  recognizes  at  all  times,  at  all  places,  under  all  cir 
cumstances,  the  inequality  of  man.  It  speaks  of  princes 
and  people,  the  noble  and  ignoble,  the  wise  and  the 
simple,  the  great  and  the  small,  the  rich  and  the  poor. 
All  the  different  persons  we  find  there  have  different 
talents.  Christ  himself  tells  us  that  God  has  given  to 
one  man  five  talents,  to  another  three,  and  to  another  one  ; 
We  tintf1  the  one  has  a  talent  to  preach,  one  to  prophesy, 
one  to  exhort,  one  to  rule,  and  so  on.  More  than  this, 
men  who  made  the  Bible  the  rule  of  their  faith,  and  the 


THE  FIRST    Wl TNESS.  4  \ 

guide  of  their  life,  had  always  their  wits  about  thorn  ; 
they  reasoned  soundly,  rationally,  and  wisely.  Now, 
reasoning  from  the  analogies  of  nature,  the  law  of  ine 
quality  is  the  order  of  the  universe.  Beginning  with  the 
great  First  Cause,  God,  the  creator  and  author  of  all 
things,  we  have  the  archangels,  the  angels,  and  man — 
man  in  highest  intellectual  endowments,  and  man  coming 
down  step  by  step,  until  he  gets  so  low  that  you  can 
scarcely  tell  him  from  the  animal.  So  you  can  trace  the 
animal  down,  from  the  horse  and  dog — and  these  are  so 
intelligent  that  man  can  almost  talk  with  them— to  the 
sponge,  which  so  nearly  resembles  the  vegetable  that  it  is 
hardly  distinguishable  from  it.  So  you  can  follow  the 
gradations  of  life  in  the  vegetable  world,  from  the  rose, 
whose  beauty  and  fragrance  speak  the  language  of  love 
so  eloquently,  to  the  toadstool  and  fungous  growth  on  the 
body  of  trees,  which  have  so  little  life  that  you  can  hardly 
tell  them  from  dead  matter.  No,  gentlemen,  equality  was 
born  at  other  times,  and  under  other  circumstances. 

"While  Luther  and  hiscolaborers  in  the  great  work  of 
reform  used  the  simple  sword  of  truth,  the  word  of  God, 
they  were  irresistible.  They  went  conquering  and  to 
conquer.  They  overran  Germany,  England,  France, 
Switzerland,  and  indeed  nearly  all  Europe.  But  when 
they  forgot  that  the  great  end  and  aim  of  Christianity, 
its  alpha  and  omega,  its  beginning  and  its  end,  its  pro 
phecies  and  its  preaching,  its  laws  and  its  ordinances,  its 
doctrines  and  its  ceremonies,  is,  as  was  beautifully  set 
forth  by  its  divine  head,  'to  love  the  Lord  thy  God'with 
all  thy  heart,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,'  the  Reforma 
tion  stopped.  Yes,  as  soon  as  they  forgot  this  truth  and 
sat  down  to  quarrel  with  each  other  about  their  foolish 
theologies,  their  silly  doctrines  and  stupid  creeds,  the 
Reformation  not  only  stopped  but  commenced  going 
backwards.  When  the  Reformers  commenced  building 
ecclesiastical  courts,  and  making  ecclesiastical  laws,  not 
for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
good  of  man,  but  for  the  purpose  of  getting  into  their  own 
hands  power  and  authority,  the  Reformation  began  to  go 
backwards.  In  the  mean  time  the  Catholic  Church  had 
reformed  many  of  its  abuses  ;  in  her  hour  of  danger  she 

4* 


42  THE  GREAT  TRIAL. 

had  called  lo  her  aid  a  new  class  of  men.  She  got  into 
other  and  better  hands.  Her  new  rulers  commissioned 
Loyola  and  men  like  him  to  undertake  her  defense.  They 
went  forth,  with  Jesuit  and  other  new  orders,  like  an 
army  of  martyrs,  fired  with  a  holy  zeal  to  defend  the 
church,  and  die,  if  need  be,  in  her  defense.  This  army 
attacked  the  Protestants,  no  longer  governed  by  the  spirit 
which  begot  the  Reformation,  but  divided  and  wrangling 
with  each  other  about  their  foolish  creeds.  Thousands 
of  good  men — honest,  conscientious,  and  benevolent  men 
— had  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Reformation  because  they 
believed  it  to  be  the  cause  of  truth.  But  when  they  saw 
the  new  churches  falling  into  the  same  errors  and  com 
mitting  the  same  follies  as  the  old  church  had  done,  when 
they  saw  the  Reformers  teaching  for  doctrines  the  com 
mandments  of  men,  and  laboring  to  build  up  for  them 
selves  power  and  authority  by  means  of  ecclesiastical 
courts,  they  determined  to  go  back  to  the  mother  church. 
Their  purpose  was  pushed  on  not  a  little  by  the  fact  that 
the  old  church,  purified  in  the  fires  of  tribulation,  not  only 
exhibited  a  holier  zeal,  but  was  performing  more  of  the 
practical  duties  of  Christianity.  In  going  back,  however, 
they  had  to  pass  over  the  debatable  ground  of  skepticism. 
Here,  in  this  land  of  doubt  and  infidelity,  was  born  the 
dogma  of  equality. 

"  Whether  it  was  because  France  contained  a  larger 
proportion  of  men  of  this  class  than  other  countries,  or 
whether  it  was  because  her  people  had  been  more  cursed 
by  the  church,  and  oppressed  with  a  more  intolerable 
despotism  than  any  other  people  of  Europe,  it  will  not  be 
necessary  for  us  to  inquire ;  it  will  be  sufficient  for  our 
purpose  to  know  that  France  adopted  this  new  philosophy, 
and  made  it  at  once  her  politics  and  her  religion.  The 
history  of  her  long  struggle  to  build  up  a  system  of  re 
ligion  and  government  upon  this  infidel  idea,  together 
with  its  utter  and  terrible  failure,  are  too  well  known  to 
be  described  here.  Every  one  who  has  read  history  at 
all  remembers  vividly  the  dark  deeds  of  that  reign  of 
terror;  how  that  the  streets  of  her  cities  ran  red  with 
blood  ;  how  that  Nemesis,  the  goddess  of  revenge,  took 
possession  of  the  river  Seine,  and  refused  to  be  propitiated 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  43 

until  hundreds  of  innocent  little  children  were  offered  as 
sacrifices  to  its  dark  waters ;  how  that  a  strumpet  was 
placed  upon  the  throne,  and  the  people  commanded  to 
worship  her  as  the  goddess  of  reason  :  while  the  Chris 
tian  world  looked  with  horror  upon  this  terrible  tragedy, 
it  could  but  look  with  contempt  upon  the  pitiable  and 
disgusting  farce  which  wound  it  up.  How  truly  pitiable 
it  was  to  see  a  people  confessedly  great,  a  people  phys 
ically,  morally,  and  intellectually  equal  to  any  nation 
on  earth,  weakened,  worn  out,  and  exhausted  by  this 
ague-fit  of  infidelity !  to  see  them  conscious  of  their  own 
wretchedness,  begging  their  old  taskmasters,  the  nobility, 
and  the  priesthood,  to  come  back  and  save  them  from  the 
madness  of  their  own  crimes  and  follies  !  Surely,  gentle 
men,  this  sight  was  not  calculated  to  recommend  a  sys 
tem  of  philosophy  to  such  men  as  the  Washingtons, 
Henrys,  Adamses,  Franklins,  and  Hamiltons  of  America. 
The  truth  is,  France  had  at  the  beginning  of  that  revo 
lution  a  great  soldier  and  statesman,  trained  under 
Washington  and  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
American  liberty,  the  Marquis  de  Lafayette.  But  for 
trying  to  stay  the  fanatical  run-mad  proceedings  of  her 
National  Assembly,  and  for  daring  to  recommend  a 
policy  rational,  wise,  and  consistent,  Lafayette  had  to 
fly  from  his  country." 

"  Mr.  Priest,"  interrupted  the  bondautocrat,  "I  don't 
see  the  use  of  all  this  history.  What  has  it  to  do  with  the 
case  in  hand  ?" 

"The  fact  I've  been  trying  to  show  you  is  this:  that 
the  condition  of  affairs  now  existing  in  this  country  is 
wholly  unnatural ;  that  it  has  been  brought  about  by  a 
certain  definite  cause,  and  that  cause  is  infidelity.  I  re 
peat  it,  such  monstrous  falsehood  could  never  have  been 
imposed  upon  the  human  mind  unless  it  had  first  been 
lulled  to  sleep  with  the  opiates  of  infidelity.  Why,  sir, 
any  man  who  is  not  asleep  can  tell  just  by  looking 
around  him  that  there  are  plenty  of  men  not  equal  to 
him,  and  plenty  of  others  to  whom  he  is  not  equal  either 
physically,  intellectually,  morally,  or  socially.  He  would 
know,  too,  that  the  simple  fact  of  voting  don't  make  him 
equal  to  iren  who  are  his  superiors,  rior  make  those  men 


44  THE   GREAT  TRIAL. 

equal  to  him  who  are  his  inferiors.  He  would  know  that 
by  a  little  practice  his  horses  and  dogs  could  be  taught  to 
vote,  and  if  voting  produces  equality  his  horses  and  dogs 
would  be  equal  to  him  and  equal  to  other  men.  The 
common  people  would  know  that  they  haven't  got  as 
much  learning  as  I  have,  nor  as  much  talent  as  my 
friend  the  politician,  nor  the  luxurious  refinements  and 
elegancies  of  life  which  your  wealth  enables  you  to  have. 
In  what,  then,  does  this  equality  consist?  In  voting — a 
mere  name.  They  come  to  the  polls,  and  vote,  and  then 
go  back  to  their  drudgery  and  toil,  which  other  people 
get  the  benefit  of,  just  like  other  slaves.  It  does  seem  to 
me  that  these  people,  although  both  blind  and  deaf,  ought 
to  feel  that  suffrage  is  only  a  bauble  for  them  to  play  with, 
while  other  people  reap  the  fruits  of  their  labor." 

"  What  is  the  use,"  interrupted  the  bondautocrat,  with 
impatience,  "  of  this  labored  effort  to  prove  what  nobody 
doubts?  I  reached  the  conclusion  by  a  shorter  cut  long 
ago,  that  these  people  wont  make  mules  by  crossing  them 
with  asses,  for  they  are  asses  themselves." 

"Suppose,"  retorted  the  priest,  a  little  nettled,  "that 
some  Patrick  Henry,  gifted  with  inspiration,  should 
preach  to  these  people  and  wake  them  up.  Suppose  they 
should  demand  of  my  friend  the  politician  the  Union  he 
promised  them  the  war  would  save  and  not  destroy,  as  it 
Las  done.  Suppose  they  should  demand  of  me  the  free 
dom  which  I  promised  from  the  pulpit  the  war  would 
bring,  when  in  fact  it  has  brought  on  them  the  despotism 
of  an  oppressive  and  intolerable  taxation.  Suppose  they 
should  demand  of  you  the  equality  which  you  promised 
the  war  would  bring,  when  in  fact  it  has  built  up  a 
moneyed  aristocracy,  tenfold  greater  than  any  which 
existed  in  the  country  before.  Suppose  this  requisition 
should  come  to  us,  not  as  a  petition,  but  as  the  demand 
of  a  right, — a  right  which  they  as  American  citizens 
inherited  from  their  fathers,  a  right  which  no  power  on 
earth  has  authority  to  take  from  them, — what,  sir,  would 
become  of  vour  conclusions?  what,  sir,  would  become  of 
us?" 

"  Mr.  Priest,"  said  the  politician,  "this  is  a  view  of  the 
matter  which  had  never  occurred  to  me  ;  and  it  strikes 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  45 

me  very  forcibly  as  being  true.  If  it  is  true,  this  is  a 
more  perilous  undertaking-  than  I  supposed,  and  the  risk 
is  more  than  I  feel  willing  to  undertake." 

"What,  Mr.  Politician!"  said  the  boudautocrat,  "you 
getting  scared  too?" 

"I  am  willing,"  said  the  politician,  "to  do  anything 
which  will  pay,  except  to  go  to  the  devil.  If  these 
people  are  as  terrible  as  the  priest  would  have  us  believe, 
I  am  afraid  that  is  where  we  will  go  to  before  we  get 
through." 

"  Gentlemen,"  answered  the  bondautocrat,  "  I  don't 
know  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  going  to  the  devil,  or 
such  a  place  to  go  to  ;  but  I  do  know  there  is  such  a  place 
as  Wall  Street ;  and  such  things  as  gold,  greenbacks,  and 
bonds;  I  know,  too,  that  all  these  things  are  for  hire  at 
paying  rates,  and  ready  always  for  a  speculation  which 
promises  to  pay." 

"  This  thing  will  pay  beyond  a  doubt,"  answered  the 
priest,  "if  we  can  only  carry  it  through.  It  will  make 
secure,  Mr.  Bondautocrat,  what  has  already  been  gained. 
Besides  this,  it  will  lead  into  your  coffers  a  stream  of 
replenishment  constant  and  unfailing.  Once  succeed  in 
crossing  the  '  poor  white  trash  '  with  the  negro,  and  you 
will  have  a  mongrel  race  of  slaves,  without  spirit  or 
courage  ;  a  race  whose  docility  and  tameness  will  enable 
you  to  keep  them  in  servitude  forever.  Now,  what  better 
basis  could  you  have  to  build  an  aristocracy  on  than  a 
class  of  laborers,  who  will  be  made  (it  by  natural  laws 
for  servitude  ? .  You  have  no  idea,  sir,  how  the  infusion 
of  a  little  negro  blood  will  tame  that  wild,  fierce  torrent 
which  rushes  through  the  veins  of  the  Caucasian. 
Besides  this,  it  will  thicken  up  the  skin,  and  make  him 
less  sensitive  to  the  yoke  of  slavery :  they  will  not  gall 
so  quick.  But,  gentlemen,"  continued  the  priest,  "  we 
must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  this  business  is  risky, 
and  that  it  will  require  all  the  wisdom  and  power  we 
possess  to  carry  it  through.  In  the  first  place,  we  must 
keep  the  people  constantly  asleep  with  the  opiates  of  in 
fidelity.  As  this  is  more  especially  my  part  of  the  busi 
ness,  I  will  see  to  it  that  it  is  not  neglected.  The  most 
sure  M'Hy  to  do  this  is  to  keep  them  amused  by  some 


4G  TUB   GREAT  TRIAL. 

new  toy.  Just  now  we  have  hanging-,  like  a  plaything 
around  their  necks,  woman's  rights.  This  bauble  will  do 
for  some' time  yet.  By  the  time  it  gets  old  and  wears 
out,  as  temperance,  prohibitory  laws,  mesmerism,  spirit 
ualism,  etc.,  have  done,  we  will  have  something  new.  In 
the  mean  time,  Mr.  Politician,  do  you  do  all  in  your  power 
to  centralize  the  government,  enlarge  its  powers,  increase 
the  military  departments,  and  keep  everything  in  the 
hands  of  our  party." 

"Everything  is  working  to  our  hand,"  answered  the 
politician.  "  If  our  reconstruction  policy  is  carried 
through,  and  it  will  be  beyond  a  doubt,  my  part  of  the 
business  will  be  done." 

"Why  did  you  not  keep  up  the  military  government 
in  the  South  ?"  asked  the  bondautocrat.  "  That,  it  seems 
to  me,  would  have  been  the  very  policy  to  enlarge  the 
army." 

"My  dear  sir,"  answered  the  politician,  "our  system 
will  answer  the  purpose  much  better  than  a  direct  mili 
tary  government.  It  will  take  twice  as  large  an  army 
to  keep  those  negro  governments  straight  as  it  would 
require  to  carry  on  a  single  military  government. 
Under  military  rule  the  better  class  of  citizens  in  those 
States  would  control  the  government.  For  I  care  not 
whom  we  might  send  there  as  military  governors,  they 
would  recognize  at  once  the  vast  superiority  of  the  dis 
franchised  party  over  the  party  to  whom  we  have  in 
trusted  the  governments  as  reconstructed.  The  black 
and  white  negroes,"  said  the  politician,  smiling,  ".who 
have  the  management  of  things  down  there,  are  wholly 
incompetent  to  carry  on  any  government." 

"The  negroes  and  ' poor  white  trash,1  I  guess,"  said 
the  bondautocrat. 

"If  you  had  left  the  word  poor  out  you  would  have 
hit  it  exactly,"  said  the  politician, — "  the  negro  and  white 
trash  To  give  the  devil  his  dues,"  continued  the  poli 
tician,  "  no  class  of  their  people  entered  upon  the  war 
with  more  zeal,  and  maintained  their  cause  with  greater 
iidelity,  than  the  laboring  people  of  the  South.  Indeed, 
sir  had  their  wealthy  citizens  exhibited  the  same  spirit 
</  ^elf-sacrificing  devotion,  we  never  could  have  whipped 


TUB  FIRST    WITNESS.  47 

them.  The  rich  men  of  the  South  went  into  the  war, 
those  of  the  cotton  States  more  especially,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  creating  a  new  government,  which  they  supposed 
would  add  greatly  to  their  wealth  and  importance.  But 
the  masses  of  the  people  went  into  it  because  it  was  an 
invasion  of  their  homes.  They  looked  upon  it  as  a  tyran 
nical  usurpation  of  power  by  the  federal  government,  for 
the  purpose  of  trampling  underfoot  their  long-cherished 
doctrine  of  State  rights.  Indeed,  they  looked  upon  the 
whole  thing  as  a  violation  of  the  constitutional  compact 
between  the  States,  a  total  subversion  of  our  system  of 
government,  and  an  outrage  upon  the  genius  of  Amer 
ican  liberty.  The  democratic  party  of  the  North  not  only 
entertained  the  same  political  notions,  but  they  actually 
urged  the  South  into  the  war.  When,  however,  the 
South  got  into  the  difficulty,  they  not  only  deserted  her, 
but  actually  helped  to  destroy  her, — an  instance  of 
treachery,  meanness,  and  cowardice  such  as  the  world 
never  saw  before.  The  rebels  I  hate  most  heartily  ;  but 
the  party  who  were  their  friends  until  they  got  into 
trouble,  and  then  turned  round  and  helped  destroy  them, 
and  the  political  principles  which  they  held  in  common 
with  them,  I  despise.  I  think,  sir,  we  deserve  a  good 
deal  of  credit  for  the  way  in  which  we  managed  that 
thing.  In  the  first  place,  we  bought  up  the  old  party 
leaders  with  office  and  gold,  until  we  got  the  rank  and 
file  into  line,  and  then  we  kicked  them  out.  The  South 
to-day  is  divided  into  two  parties.  The  one  party  con 
sists  of  the  brave  and  honorable  men  who,  whether  rich 
or  poor,  were  ready  to  sacrifice  their  lives  and  property 
in  defense  of  what  they  believed  to  be  the  right ;  my 
enemies  as  they  are,  I  cannot  but  admire  the  genius,  the 
constancy,  and  the  heroism  they  exhibited  in  their  des 
perate  defense  of  a  bad  cause.  The  other  party  is  made 
up  of  the  odds  and  ends,  the  rag-tag  and  bob-tails,  the 
negroes  and  white  trash  indeed;  poor  white  men  who 
were  cowards,  and  afraid  to  go  into  the  army,  or  deserted 
it  after  they  were  in ;  rich  white  men  who  thought  the 
North  was  the  strong  side,  and  that  they  had  better  stay  on 
that  side  to  save  their  property;  men  who  never  had  any 
country  but  their  own  farms;  never  worshiped  any  God 


,   4$  THE   GREAT   TIUAL. 

but  mammon,  and  never  told  the  truth  when  it  was  more 
profitable  to  tell  a  lie  :  lastly,  mean  white  men,  who 
fought  against  us  until  they  saw  that  we  were  the  strong 
party,  and  then  suddenly  changing  sides,  they  sought  to 
make  amends  for  their  crimes  and  conciliate  us  by  violent 
and  excessive  persecution  of  their  own  people.  To  this 
jumble  of  ignorance,  cowardice,  and  meanness  we  have 
intrusted  the  government,  of  these  States.  The  devil 
himself  could  not  have  devised  a  better  excuse  for  making 
trouble  there  and  creating  a  necessity  for  a  large  standing 
army.  Another  advantage,  sir,  which  our  plan  has  over 
that  of  military  governments  is  this:  it  will  not  be  so 
objectionable  to  the  people.  Jbi'om  the  very  infancy  of 
our  government  the  people  have  been  taught  to  look  with 
suspicion  upon  standing  armies.  Nothing  was.  so  abhor 
rent  to  the  minds  of  the  fathers  of  our  country.  They 
regarded  a  standing  army  as  the  sum  of  all  evils.  So  very 
unpopular  with  the  people  has  this  thing  always  been, 
that  with  all  the  party  changes  which  this  country  has 
witnessed  since  its  organization,  no  party  has  ever  been 
rash  enough  to  advocate  a  standing  army.  At  this  time 
a  large  number  of  our  voters  are  emigrants  from  the 
states  of  Europe,  and  large  military  establishments  are 
still  more  unpopular  with  them  than  with  native  citizens  ; 
they  had  standing  armies  at  home,  and  they  know  what 
they  mean." 

"  Did  I  not  understand  you  to  say,"  asked  the  bond- 
autocrat,  "  that  your  plan  will  require  larger  armies  than 
the  other?" 

"Yes,  sir,  twice  as  large;  but  the  difference  will  be 
this.  In  the  first  plan  the  army  is  used  directly  to  govern, 
in  the  other  it  is  used  indirectly.  In  other  words,  under 
military  rule  the  army  would  govern  the  people  ;  under 
our  reconstruction  policy  the  army  will  govern  the  gov 
ernments  of  the  people.  The  people,  sir,  believe  in  self- 
government;  nor  would  they  permit  an  army  to  be  kept 
in  the  South  to  rule  the  people  there.  But  when  we  tell 
them  that  we  are  keeping  an  army  there  to  support  and 
uphold  the  cause  of  freedom  and  universal  suffrage,  it 
makes  it  all  right.  Had  Napoleon  Buonaparte  told  the 
.  French  people  that  he  wanted  large  armies  to  make  him- 


Til  E  FIRST    WITNESS.  49 

self  master  of  his  people,  and  their  king,  they  would  have 
chopped  his  head  off;  but  when  he  told  them  lie  wanted 
the  army  to  protect  the  liberty  and  glory  of  France,  they 
applauded  him.  After  he  got  the  power  in  his  hands  the 
people  found  out  what  he  was  doing  ;  but  then  it  was  too 
late.  Wo  must  keep  the  people  in  ignorance  until  we  get 
our  power  established.  Still  another  advantage  our  plan 
1ms  :  if  we  may  use  military  power  to  govern  a  Southern 
State  when  it  is  refractory,  why  may  we  not  use  it  upon 
a  Northern  State  too  ?  Some  of  the  Northern  States  may 
object  to  the  rule  after  awhile,  but  their  m*uths  will  be 
estopped  from  complaining  if  we  use  the  military;  for 
surely  if  they  sanction  its  use  against  other  States,  they 
will  have  no  just  grounds  of  complaint  if  it  should  be 
used  against  them.  Don't  you  see  the  point  of  my  argu 
ment,  Mr.  Bondautocrat?" 

"Aii,  my  dear  sir,"  replied  the  bondautocrat.  "these 
are  the  points  I  like;  and  then  I  admire  your  way  of 
going  right  straight  to  them.  Our  friend  the  priest 
always  has  to  give  us  first  a  great  long  preamble  of  his 
tory  and  philosophy,  and  every  few  steps  he  sees  the 
hand  write  on  the  wall  at  Pharaoh's  feast,  and  stops  to 
put  up  a  tinger-board  with  danger  writ  on  it.  Indeed,  I 
don't  believe  he  has  quite  gotten  over  the  first  scare  I  gave 
him  when  I  incidentally  alluded  fro  that  old  Jew  Bel- 
shazzar — was  it  not? — that  the  lions  eat  up." 

"My  dear  sir,"  said  the  priest,  a  little  nettled  at  the 
ignorance  of  his  master,  "  I  fear  my  history  will  fare  worse 
in  your  hands  than  Daniel  did  in  the  paws  of  the  lion." 

"  I  confess  I  never  studied  your  history  and  philos 
ophy,"  said  the  bondautocrat ;  "  nor  do  I  regret  it,  for  I 
have  made  other  studies  pay  me  better  than  these  fool 
eries  have  paid  you.  Men  are  my  books,  and  I  have 
studied  them  to  some  purpose.  I've  made  it  pay,  sir: 
millions.  Don't  you  think  I've  made  better  use  of  my 
books  than  you  have  of  yours?" 

"Yes,"  answered  the  priest,  a  good  deal  nettled, 
"you've  used  the  politician  to  betray  his  country  and 
sell  its  liberties,  and  the  priest  to  betray  his  God,  and 
sell  his  soul  to  the  devil,  in  order  to  filch  from  the  people 
their  hard-earned  trash,  that  your  coffers  might  be  filled." 
o  5 


50  THE   GREAT   TRIAL. 

"  Ha  !  ha  !"  laughed  the  bondautocrat.  "  I  liave  been 
a  more  prudent  man  than  you,  and  invested  my  funds  to 
better  advantage,  that's  all.  When  my  salary  was  one 
thousand  dollars,  I  saved  five  hundred  ;  and  when  it  got 
to  be  five  thousand,  I  saved  twenty-five  hundred, — half, 
yes,  always  half.  As  soon  as  I  got  able  I  started  a 
factory.  It  was  a  good  business,  paying  me  about  five 
thousand  a  year.  Hands  were  cheap,  and  provisions 
low  ;  a*t  least  I  bought  for  them  the  cheap  kind.  This 
was  about  ten  per  cent,  on  the  capital  invested.  In  the 
mean  time  I  met  with  a  lobby  member  of  your  body,  Mr. 
Politician,  and  he  proposed  for  ten  thousand  to  get  a  bill 
put  through  to  protect  my  business.  I  at  first  objected, 
for  it  looked  like  risking  too  much  upon  an  uncertainty. 
When  he  assured  me,  however,  that  it  would  make  my 
business  pay  fifty  per  cent.,  and  that  there  was  no  risk 
in  the  matter  at  all,  I  closed  the  bargain  at  once.  After 
he  got  my  money  he  told  me  that  I  had  better  have 
another  ten  thousand  ready,  for  it  might  require  that 
much  more.  He  said  he  could  not  tell  the  exact  amount 
it  would  take,  but  he  knew  there  was  a  sum  which  would 
do  the  business  beyond  a  peradventure.  It  did  take  the 
other  ten  thousand.  This  was  several  years  ago,  when 
the  business  was  comparatively  new  and  things  didn't 
work  so  smoothly  as  they  do  now.  They  were  afraid  of 
the  people  then,  and  had  to  work  very  cautiously.  Indeed, 
there  were  plenty  of  men  in  your  body  then,  Mr.  Politi- 
ci;m,  called  patriots,  who  were  on  the  lookout  for  these 
things.  For  if  they  could  find  them  out  and  report  them 
to  the  people,  it  would  make  them  extremely  popular.  I 
suppose  Mr.  Priest  would  tell  us  that  the  people  were  not- 
asleep  then,  as  they  are  now.  Really,  some  change  does 
.seem  to  have  come  over  the  spirit  of  their  dream.  ]STot 
l»ng  ago,  Mr.  Politician,  I  heard  a  member  of  your  body, 
while  giving  an  account  of  his  stewardship  to  his  con 
st  ituonts,  allude  boastiugly  to  one  of  these  transactions  by 
which  he  himself  had  made  a  good  round  sum;  and  his 
people  applauded  him  and  sent  him  back  for  another 
term.  By  the  way,  Mr.  Politician,  what  has  become  of 
those  men  in  your  profession  whom  they  used  to  call 
patriots  ?  Th/*  old  set  I  know  are  all  dead  and  gone ;  but 


THE   FIRST   WITNESS.  51 

I  suppose  they  were  not  all  bachelors.  Some  of  them 
must  have  left  children  behind,  and  what  has  become  of 
them?  These  times  we  never  see  them  nor  hear  them 
spoken  of  at  all." 

"You  seem,  sir,"  answered  the  politician,  "to  have 
been  so  much  absorbed  with  your  business  as  to  lose 
sight  of  the  many  changes  of  this  progressive  age.  This, 
however,  has  been  rather  a  change  in  name  than  in  fact. 
Patriotism  was  only  another  name,  sir,  for  loyalty.  Both 
words  mean  fidelity  to  your  government;  patriotism  and 
loyalty  are  synonymous  terms  :  either  may  be  used  for  the 
other.  My  friend  here,  the  priest,  who  is  a  more  profound 
scholar  than  I  am,  will  correct  me  if  I  am  wrong." 

"  To  some  extent  you  are  right,"  said  the  priest, 
smiling.  "  For  our  purpose  your  definition  is  not  only 
correct,  but  most  admirably  expressed, — a  pretty  thing  to 
show  to  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  and  a  musical  thing  to 
tickle  the  ears  of  the  deaf" 

"I  don't  understand  you,"  said  the  politician,  a  little 
out  of  humor. 

•'Well,  gentlemen,"  answered  the  priest,  "to  make  a 
sharp  point,  and  to  go  rig-tit  straight  to  it,  George  Wash 
ington  was  a  patriot  and  Benedict  Arnold  was  a  loyalist; 
Marion  and  Sumter  were  patriots,  while  the  tories  of 
the  Carolinas  and  their  Indian  allies  were  loyalists." 

"I  claim  to  be  a  loyalist,"  said  the  politician,  with 
warmth,  "  and  you  don't  mean  to  class  me  with  Arnold 
and  the  tories  of  the  Carolinas,  do  you  ?" 

"  I  do  not  propose  to  class  you  at  all,"  said  the  priest. 
"I  was  simply  stating  facts.  Loyalty  means  fidelity  to 
a  refgning  power,  to  an  existing  government.  Patriotism 
means  fidelity  to  your  country  and  to  the  people  of  that 
country.  In  Europe  loyalty  means  fidelity  to  the  king, 
whether  he  be  a  father  to  his  people  or  a  tyrant  and  task 
master.  In  America  loyalty  means  fidelity  to  a  particular 
party  in  power,  whether  it  is  trying  to  promote  the  good 
of  the  country  and  the  happiness  of  the  people,  or  to  hold 
possession  of  the  government  for  selfish  and  ambitious 
ends.  Do  you  believe  that,  in  imposing  on  the  Southern 
people  the  infamous  government  you  have  just  described, 
you  had  a  pro^r  regard  for  their  rights  and  happiness. 


52  THE   GREAT  TRIAL. 

or  for  the  welfare  of  the  whole  country  ?  Would  you 
pretend  to  say  that  we,  who  are  trying  to  make  a  mongrel 
race  out  of  the  common  people  of  this  country,  in  order 
that  they  and  their  children  may  he  slaves  forever,  are 
acting  with  a  just  regard  for  their  rights  and  happiness  ? 
Gentlemen,  it  is  well  for  us  that  patriotism  is  forgotten. 
'Tis  well  for  us  that  the  word  has  become  obsolete ;  it 
will  be  well  for  us  to  let  it  sleep  with  the  people.  I  look 
upon  it  as  a  dangerous  word,  especially  in  the  hands  of 
those  who  have  forgotten  its  meaning." 

"  Another  finger-board !"  said  the  bondautocrat,  smiling. 

"  I  am  afraid,"  said  the  priest,  •"  that  you  and  the 
politician  will  get  off  the  road  before  we  get  to  the  end 
of  our  journey,  despite  all  my  finger-boards." 

"Mr.  Priest,"  said  the  politician,  "this  is  pretty  plain 
talk  of  you,  to  say  the  least." 

"  I  am  sorry,"  answered  the  priest,  "that  it  is  neces 
sary  for  me  to  talk  so  plain,  for  there  are  some  things 
better  understood  than  said.  And  yet  they  had  better 
be  spoken  out  plainly  than  not  to  be  known.  If  we  go 
into  this  business  with  our  eyes  shut  we  will  certainly  be 
swamped, — be  hanged,  I  might  say  ;  for  if  the  people  find 
out  what  we  are  up  to,  hanging  will  be  considered  too 
good  for  us." 

"I  cannot  but  think,"  said  the  bondautocrat,  "that  the 
priest  attaches  more  importance  to  this  matter  than  it 
deserves." 

"  That  is  my  opinion,  too,"  said  the  politician.  "  Look, 
for  instance,  at  the  governments  of  Europe  ;  every  one 
of  them  is  an  aristocracy.  Indeed,  it  seems  to  be  a  thing 
not  hard  to  do,  but  something  which  conies  of  itself.  It- 
seems  to  follow  as  a  matter  of  course  from  the  very 
nature  of  the  case.  To  tell  the  truth,"  continued  tho 
politician,  "  this  thing  of  democracy  is  all  humbug ;  it 
never  has  succeeded,  and  never  will." 

"  I  agree  with  you  exactly,"  said  the  bondautocrat. 

"Gentlemen,"  said  the  priest,  "  the  practicability  of 
democracy  is  a  question  which  we  need  not  discuss. 
It  has  been  heretofore  the  government  of  this  country, 
and  the  people  believe  in  it.  Nor  will  they  give  it  up 
without  a  desperate  struggle,  unless  they  can  be  cheated 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  53 

out  of  it.  The  case  of  European  governments  is  not  analo 
gous  ;  and  even  if  it  was,  it  would  not  bear  the  inference 
you  propose  to  draw  from  it.  We  propose  to  do  in  a  short 
time  what  it  took  the  governments  of  Europe  generations 
and  ages  to  accomplish.  Nor  indeed  did  they  succeed  ex 
cept  by  indirect  means.  Kings  would  make  war  upon  neigh 
boring  states,  and  this  would  be  a  pretext  for  raising  largo 
armies.  When  the  war  was  over  the  danger  of  another  war 
would  be  a  good  excuse  for  keeping  up  the  army.  '  In  time 
of  peace  prepare  for  war'  served  the  purpose  of  kings  to  gull 
the  people,  just  as  the  cry  of  freedom  and  equality  have 
served  our  purpose.  After  they  succeeded  in  getting  up 
large  armies,  and  weaning  those  armies  from  the  people 
by  long  separation,  they  could  afford  to  disregard  the 
people.  The  armies  soon  became  attached  to  the  kings, 
for  they  were  the  masters  who  fed  and  clothed  them,  led 
and  drove  them.  More  than  that,  these  things  were 
done  when  the  European  world  were  just  emerging  from 
barbarism.  The  wonderful  facilities  for  giving  informa 
tion  to  the  people,  and  enlightening  them  in  regard  to 
matters  affecting  their  rights  and  happiness,  did  not  exist 
then  as  they  do  now.  Nor  did  every  man  then  have  a 
Bible  in  his  house,  that  mortal  enemy  of  oppression  and 
tyranny.  Aside  from  all  these  things,  it  is  historically 
true  that  no  state  of  Europe  surrendered  its  liberties 
without  more  than  one  desperate  struggle  to  prevent  it. 
We  had  better  look  this  thing  straight  in  the  face,  and 
prepare  to  meet  its  many  dangers,  and  not  try  to  per 
suade  ourselves  that  it  is  a  thing  easy  to  be  done.  In 
deed,  my  friend  here,  the  politician,  and  myself,  can  afford 
to  work  hard  to  accomplish  it ;  and  you,  Mr.  Bondauto- 
crat,  can  afford  to  pay  well.  Jt  will  secure  to  us  and  our 
children  those  peculiar  and  special  privileges  which  the 
aristocracy,  the  politicians,  and  the  priesthood  enjoy 
under  the  governments  of  Europe.  Much  has  already 
been  done.  A  mighty  revolution  has  been  wrought  in 
American  politics.  The  whole  plan  and  policy  of  on 
government  has  been  changed.  The  spirit  which  ori<r' 
nated  it  and  organized  it  is  dead, — yes,  to  all  intents  an 
purposes,  dead,  for  it  can  neither  see  nor  hear,  so  nearly 
gentlemen,  -loes  sleep  resemble  death.  We  have  put  th. 

5* 


54  THE   GREAT  TRIAL. 

patient  to  sleep,  and  all  that  is  necessary  now  is  to  keep 
on  hand  a  plentiful  supply  of  the  opiates  of  infidelity. 
While  the  patient  is  asleep,  do  you  make  haste,  Mr.  Poli- 
cian,  to  perform  your  operation,  and  do  it  well.  Open  a 
vein  and  infuse  a  little  negro  blood  ;  and  when  the 
patient  wakes  up  he  will  be  as  tame  and  spiritless  as  we 
would  have  him  to  be.  What  an  admirable  mudsill  for  a 
wealthy  aristocracy  !  No  aristocracy  of  Europe  has  a  serf 
dom  as  subservient  as  ours  will  be,  nor  half  as  safe.  Their 
serfs  have  in  their  veins  the  pure  Caucasian  blood,  and  in 
their  heads  the  quick,  fervid,  flashing  brain  of  the  Cau 
casian.  Every  now  and  then  the  exaction  of  tyranny  heats 
that  blood  to  the  boiling-point,  and  the  friction  of  galling 
oppression  sets  that  brain  on  fire ;  and  then  loyalty  and 
royalty,  kings  and  their  thrones,  aristocracies  with  the 
gold,  the  pomp,  and  splendor  which  they  have  manufac 
tured  out  of  the  sweat  and  tears  of  the  people,  are  wasted 
in  the  consuming  flames  of  that  fire.  Our  mulattoes, 
quadroons,  and  octoroons  will  give  us  no  trouble.  This 
will  be  the  beauty  of  our  aristocracy  ;  it  will  last  forever 
and  never  be  disturbed  by  revolution." 

"  But  I  have  been  told,"  said  the  bondautocrat,  "  that 
mongrel  races  will  run  out;  and  if  it  be  true,  what  will 
become  of  our  race  of  mules  ?" 

"  That  is  true,"  answered  the  preacher, — "a  truth  de 
monstrated  by  science,  history,  and  analogy.  But,  my 
dear  sir,  we  can  easily  get  around  that  difficulty:  while 
it  is  running  out  we  will  keep  running  it  in.  In  other 
words,  we  will  keep  up  fresh  infusions  of  blood  from  both 
sides.  Ireland  and  Germany  will  supply  us  with  fresh 
horses  (poor  white  trash),  and  the  supply  of  asses  (ne 
groes)  on  hand  is  pretty  large.  It  will  last  for  some  time 
yet.  By  the  time  it  runs  out  we  will  have  the  matter  in 
our  own  hands,  and  can  ship  fresh  supplies  from  Africa." 

"What!"  interrupted  the  politician,  "the  ignorant, 
filthy  negro,  fresh  from  barbarism?" 

"And  why  not?"  answered  the  preacher.  "The  doc 
trine  which  we  are  teaching  the  '  poor  white  trash'  is, 
that  a  man  is  rather  a  better  man  for  being  a  negro,  ft 
then  follows  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  better  the  negro 
the  better  the  man  So  the  very  Lest  man  would  be  a 


TIIK  FIRST    WITNESS.  55 

simon  pure,  fresh  from  Guinea.  These  times,"  said  the 
priest,  "  the  negro  is  the  model  man.  Now  the  character 
istics  of  the  negro  are  a  broad  foot,  flat  nose,  and  strong- 
smell.  The  negro  fresh  from  the  sod  would  be  the  high 
est  model,  for  his  foot  would  be  broader,  his  nose  flatter, 
and  his  smell  stronger;  and  as  for  the  black  skin,  which 
seems  to  be  above  par  just  now,  why  the  Guinea  nigger 
would  shine  with  all  the  brightness  of  a  tropical  polish. 
The  easiest  thing  done  in  the  world,  sir!  We  have 
already  persuaded  the  people  to  believe  that  the  negro  is 
a  noble  race,  so  noble  that  although  they  have  been  sub 
jected  to  the  demoralizing  and  degrading  tyranny  of  a 
brutal  system  of  slavery  for  generations  they  are  still 
equal  to  the  white  man.  Now  if  this  be  true,  and  whether 
it  is  or  not  they  believe  it,  could  they  hesitate  to  believe 
that  a  negro  fresh  from  his  native  sunny  home,  where  he 
has  never  been  subjected  to  the  debasing  influences  of 
slavery,  is  better  than  the  white  man  ?  This  reasoning 
is  so  clear  that  no  one  can  refute  it." 

"  Ah,  my  dear  sir,"  said  the  politician,  "  the  negro  has, 
notwithstanding  his  slavery,  been  for  a  long  time  under 
the  influence  of  our  enlightened  and  progressive  civiliza 
tion  ;  and  this  has  vastly  improved  his  condition  physic 
ally,  morally,  and  intellectually." 

"  That."  answered  the  priest,  "  is  the  argument  of  the 
slave-holder.  He  claims  that  he  found  the  negro  the 
most  degraded  of  all  barbarians,  and  that  slavery  is  a 
system  of  education  admirably  suited  to  his  natsre  and 
condition  ;  that  under  his  pupilage  the  negro  progressed 
more  rapidly  towards  civilization  than  any  barbarian  race 
ever  did  under  any  system  of  education.  Now  all  of  this 
is  true  if  the  negro  is,  as  we  have  made  the  people  believe, 
equal  to  the  white  man.  The  different  families  of  the 
Caucasian  race  in  Europe,  who  in  their  native  barbarism 
were  infinitely  superior  to  the  negro,  have  been  under  the 
influences  of  that  same  progressive  civilization  for  over 
eighteen  hundred  years;  and  yet  they  are  not  educated 
up  to  a  fitness  for  self-government.  The  very  best  of  these 
nations  have  repeatedly  made  the  experiment,  and  most 
signally  failed.  Why,  only  a  few  years  ago,  the  people 
of  this  counti'3  had  such  high  notions  of  citizenship  under 


56  THE   GREAT   TRIAL. 

our  government,  its  duties  and  responsibilities,  that  they 
believed  even  the  German  and  Irish  emigrants  were  not 
fit  to  be  intrusted  with  it.  I  repeat  it,  sir  :  if  slavery, 
which  only  a  few  generations  ago  found  the  negro  so 
ignorant,  so  filthy,  and  so  degraded  an  animal  that  he 
was  hardly  considered  as  belonging  to  the  human  species, 
has  in  this  short  space  of  time  made  him  equal  to  the 
most  virtuous  and  enlightened  of  the  Caucasian  race  (for 
such  we  claim  to  be),  and  made  him  fit  to  enjoy  the  broad 
freedom  and  to  discharge  the  grave  duties  of  a  citizen  of 
the  freest  government  in  the  world,  then  does  it  follow 
beyond  a  cavil  that  slavery  is  the  most  beneficent  system 
of  education  ever  devised  by  human  wisdom.  It  would 
follow  also  that  the  slave-holder  is  the  greatest  benefactor 
of  mankind;  so  likewise  would  it  follow  that  the  deso 
lating  and  destructive  war  which  we  have  waged  against 
those  people  is  a  crime  without  a  precedent  in  the  history 
of  human  wrongs  " 

"  Another  cross-road  for  another  finger-board,"  said  the 
bondautocrat,  smiling. 

"  The  same  old  cross-road,  and  the  same  old  finger 
board,"  said  the  priest.  "I  have  come  to  it  from  a  new 
direction,  to  see  if  you  gentlemen  would  know  it." 

"  I  see  on  it,"  said  the  politician,  "  the  same  old  sign, 
'  Don't  wake  up  the  people.'" 

"Exactly,"  said  the  priest;  "  a  people  who  believed 
yesterday  that  they  ought  to  sacrifice  their  lives  to  liber 
ate  a  race  of  slaves  from  a  debauching  and  degrading 
servitude,  and  to-day  believe  that  those  same  slaves  are 
as  good  or  a  little  better  than  they  are  themselves,  must 
be  laboring  under  some  dreadful  infatuation, — an  infatua 
tion  not  less  powerful  than  the  witchery  of  infidelity." 

"  I  believe,"  said  the  politician,  addressing  the  bond- 
autocrat,  "  that  these  priests  have  had  us  bewitched  too. 
For  really  this  is  a  view  of  this  whole  matter  which  had 
never  occurred  to  my  mind  before." 

"I  never  trouble  my  mind,"  said  the  bondautocrat, 
"  about  your  philosophies.  My  objection  to  slavery  was 
that  it  was  not  a  paying  institution.  Some  years  ago  I 
visited  a  sister  of  mine  down  South,  who  had  married  a 
slave-holder  ;  arid  I  canu  to  the  conclusion,  while  on 


TUB  FIRST    WITNESS.  57 

that  visit,  that  she  and  her  husband  were  worse  slaves  than 
their  negroes.  Their  negroes  were  the  slowest  hands 
I  ever  saw,  and  then  their  improvidence,  and  neglect! 
why,  thoy  wasted  half  as  much  as  they  made.  You  have 
no  Idea  what  a  trouble,  too,  it  was  to  take  care  of  the  sick, 
the  old,  and  decrepit.  I  laughed,  and  told  them  that  my 
slaves  up  North  did  me  twice  as  much  service,  without 
half  the  care  and  expense.  I  was  opposed  to  it,  gentle* 
men,  simply  because  it  wouldn't  pay.  I  strongly  suspect 
that  you,  Mr.  Politician,  opposed  it  for  the  same  reason  ; 
you  found  it  easier  to  abuse  slavery  and  be  a  represent 
ative  of  the  people,  with  free  access  to  the  public  crib, 
than  to  stay  at  home  and  work." 

"  You  guess  well,"  said  the  politician,  laughing.  "  An 
admission  I  would  not  like  to  make  outside  of  this  council- 
chamber  ;  but  as  our  deliberations  are  strictly  private  and 
confidential,  it  don't  matter.  I  suppose  your  outer  door 
is  locked,"  continued  the  politician,  addressing  the  bond- 
autocrat. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  he  answered,  "I  locked  it  myself." 

"And  I,"  said  the  priest,  "put  in  the  iron  bolt  after 
you  left  it." 

"And  wrote  danger  over  the  door,"  added  the  bond- 
autocrat,  smiling. 

"  Could  the  people  know,"  said  the  priest,  "  the  facts 
which  have  been  disclosed  here  to-night,  it  would  be  a 
useless  precaution  to  write  danger  over  the  door.  Aye, 
your  bolts  and  bars  too  would  be  useless,  for  they  would 
melt  in  the  fire  of  their  anger." 

"  I  suppose,  Mr.  Priest,"  asked  the  bondautocrat,  "that 
your  opposition  to  slavery  sprung  from  motives  of  benevo 
lence  ?" 

"  Benevolent  motives  like  mine  !"  said  the  politician, 
with  an  expressive  look  ;  "benevolent  feeling  for  himself 
and  family."  ..;.'4o 

"  'Most  as  good  at  guessing  as  the  bondautocrat,"  said 
the  priest.  "  Why  is  it  that  we  are  so  reluctant  to  confess 
some  things,  even  to  those  who  know  them  as  well  as 
ourselves?  This  is  the  point,  gentlemen,  I've  been 
driving  at  all  this  time." 

"Well,"  said  t^.e  bondautocrat,  with  a  smile,  "1 
c* 


f)8  THE   GREAT  TRIAL. 

thought  you  were  only  driving  at  it,  for  I  have  never  yet 
been  able  to  see  anything  where  you  have  been  putting 
up  all  those  finger-boards.  Straight  to  it,  Mr.  Priest, 
and  let  us  see  the  bugbear  which  has  frightened  you  so 
often,  and  which  you  have  used  so  repeatedly  to  frighten 
us  with." 

"Then,  gentlemen,"  answered  the  priest,  "to  be  as 
candid  as  yourselves,  I  was  opposed  to  slavery  for  the 
same  reason  that  you  were.  I  opposed  it  because  I  found 
that  policy  would  pay  better.  I  advocated  abolition  for 
the  same  reason  that  I  preached  temperance,  teetotal- 
ism,  know-nothingism,  mesmerism,  spiritualism,  woman's 
rights,  equality,  miscegenation,  and  so  on.  When  these 
humbugs  were  first  started,  I  set  my  face  against  them, 
because  they  were  all  clearly  contrary  to  reason  and 
Scripture.  Not  only  did  my  conscience  condemn  them, 
but  they  were  abhorrent  to  my  feelings  as  a  man. 
But  when  I  compared  my  little  old-fashioned  church  and 
the  little  assembly  of  plain,  unpretending  people  who 
worshiped  there,  with  the  splendid  new  churches  around 
me,  when  I  looked  at  their  fine  organs,  fine  choirs,  and 
their  large  rich  congregations,  I  began  to  cave  in.  More 
especially  was  this  the  case,  when  I  found  out  that  men, 
with  less  than  one-third  the  brains  and  information  which 
I  possessed,  were  getting  three  times  as  big  a  salary. 
My  family,  too,  complained.  My  wife  was  particularly 
bitter  on  my  old-fogy  notions,  as  she  chose  to  call  them. 
She  complained,  too,  that  whilst  the  daughters  of  other 
ministers  were  educated  at  boarding-schools  and  received 
into  the  first  circles  of  society,  her  daughters  had  to 
go  to  common  schools  and  to  associate  with  common 
people.  I  never  tried  to  reason  with  her,  because  I  never 
in  my  life  met  with  a  woman  who  had  the  remotest  idea 
of  what  reason  is.  If  their  whim  is  to  do  wrong,  an 
angel  couldn't  persuade  them  out  of  it.  And  let  it  be 
said  to  their  credit,  if  their  whim  is  to  do  right,  the  devil 
couldn't  beguile  them  to  do  wrong.  I  have  often  regret 
ted  that  Mother  Eve  didn't  take  a  prejudice  to  the  tree  of 
good  and  evil  knowledge,  for  if  she  had  we  might,  have 
been  in  a  paradise  to  this  day.  At  length,  fretted  by  my 
^overty,  my  pride,  and  the  ceaseless  importunities  of  my 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  59 

wife,  I  announced  my  intention  to  preach  an  anti-slavery 
sermon.  I  pretended  to  have  examined  the  subject  and 
found  out  my  error;  but  henceforth  my  place  would  be 
in  the  very  front  rank  of  reformers.  A  great  many 
people  came  out  to  hear  me.  Indeed,  many  admired  my 
talents  and  learning  who  did  not  like  my  politics.  I  put 
my  best  foot  forward,  you  may  be  sure,  and  my  effort  was 
applauded  to  the  very  echo.  Sometimes  the  people  would 
weep,  sometimes  they  would  laugh,  and  sometimes  they 
would  applaud.  This  latter  demonstration  seemed  to  me 
to  be  very  much  out  of  place.  It  gave  me  such  a  shock 
that  I  surely  would  have  broken  down,  had  it  not  occurred 
when  I  was  nearly  through.  Not  many  of  my  own  con 
gregation  had  come  out  to  hear  me.  The  few  who  did 
come  were  so  much  offended  that  they  got  up  and  left 
the  church.  It  se«med  to  them  to  be  a  horrible  desecra 
tion.  The  next  day  a  committee  waited  on  me  from 
the  church,  to  remonstrate  against  my  course ;  when  I 
refused  to  heed  their  kind  but  earnest  remonstrance,  they 
reminded  me  of  my  inconsistency.  I  answered  tartly 
that  good  men  saw  their  errors  and  repented  of  them  ; 
only  oad  men  hold  on  to  them.  They  then  asked  me 
kindly  but  firmly  to  resign  my  charge,  that  they  might 
get  another  minister.  1  told  them  I  would  do  it  with 
pleasure  ;  I  did  not  want  to  preach  for  a  people  who  did 
not  desire  to  hear  me.  Gentlemen,  excuse  me  ;  I  tremble 
yet  to  think  of  that  parting  scene.  An  old  gray-headed 
man,  who  had  been  a  father  in  the  church  and  a  father 
to  me,  was  the  last  to  shake  hands  with  me.  As  his  pal 
sied  hand  grasped  mine  he  looked  into  my  face  with  that 
mingled  expression  of  truth,  love,  and  piety  which  we  so 
often  see  in  the  faces  of  those  who  are  about  to  start  to 
their  long  home.  Firm  in  his  own  integrity,  yet  weeping 
out  of  pity  for  an  erring  son,  he  let  fall  on  my  ears  words 
which  tingle  there  still.  '  My  son,'  said  he,  '  I  will 
start  in  a  few  days  to  the  better  land.  My  sands  of  life 
are  nearly  run  out.  One  thought  has  cheered  me  and 
brightened  the  gloom  of  that  dark  valley  through  which 
I  must  soon  pass.  It  was  the  thought  that  our  little  flock, 
ever  pure  and  unspotted  from  the  world,  would  come  to 
me  there,  together  with  our  loved  pastor.  .But  if  you 


60  THE   GREAT   TRIAL. 

continue  in  your  present  course,  you  at  least  can  never 
come  to  me.  The  frail  bark  you  are  now  in  cannot  stem 
Jordan's  angry  flood  ;  but  swiftly  down  the  dark  river  of 
death  will  it  sweep  to  that  ocean  whose  waves  are  fire, 
and  whose  shores  are  eternity.  This,  this  will  be  the 
last  farewell.'  Had  the  stars  of  heaven  been  mine,  and 
they  all  of  silver,  I  -would  gladly  have  given  them  to  be 
able  to  recall  one  day  of  my  life.  Gladly  would  I  have 
bid  farewell  to  earth  with  all  its  glittering  baubles;  all, 
yes  all,  rather  than  bid  that  sainted  old  man  that  last 
farewell.  Often  now  doos  that  tremulous  voice  break  in 
upon  my  reveries,  or  startle  my  midnight  sleep  with  those 
awful  words, — '  This,  this  is  the  last  farewell.'  " 

The  priest  here  became  so  deeply  agitated  that  he 
could  not  control  his  feelings  any  longer.  Even  the  bond- 
autocrat  seemed  to  be  touched  with  pity,  and  respected 
the  pause. 

"For  a  month  afterward,"  continued  the  priest,  after 
recovering  his  self-possession,  "  I  was  receiving  letters 
of  congratulation  upon  my  conversion  to  the  cause  of 
humanity.  And  then  my  church  had  turned  me  off. 
How  delicious  it  is  to  be  made  a  martyr  of,  especially 
in  a  bad  cause !  I  got  directly  a  half-dozen  calls  to  big 
churches." 

"Of  course,"  said  the  politician,  "you  accepted  the 
one  which  offered  the  biggest  pay." 

"  Not  exactly,"  answered  the  priest.  "  For  I  found 
out  upon  inquiry  that  the  pay  there  had  been  run  up  to 
the  high-water  mark,  and  was  then  rather  on  the  ebb.  I 
accepted  the  next  best  offer,  because  they  were  not  as  yet 
so  heavily  taxed,  and  were  able  to  pay  a  good  deal  more. 
They  did  really  in  the  next  year  double  my  salary.  At 
once  I  set  myself  to  work  to  please  my  new  people,  and 
whilst  engaged  in  this  study,  I  discovered  why  people 
would  pay  so  much  more  for  a  preacher  who  would  make 
abolition,  free-love,  and  woman's  rights  speeches,  than 
for  one  who  would  preach  to  them  the  truths  of  the  gos 
pel.  I  was  not  long  in  finding  out  the  secret.  I  found 
this  new  Christianity  was  both  cheaper  and  more  palat 
able  than  the  truths  of  the  Bible.  Men  who  had  spent 
the  week  in  financial  gambling,  commercial  chicanery, 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  01 

political  trickery,  judicial  sophistry,  or  indirectly  filching 
from  the  poor  their  hard-earned  cash,  would  come  on 
Sunday  and  hear  a  thrilling  appeal  in  behalf  of  the  poor 
oppressed  negro.  They  would  get  up  a  state  of  good 
feeling,  shed  a  plentiful  supply  of  tears,  give  a  few  dol 
lars  to  the  church,  and  subscribe  something  for  the  pub 
lication  of  some  new  book  written  in  defense  of  the 
cause  of  humanity,  that  is,  Maine  liquor  laws,  mesmerism, 
spiritualism,  woman's  rights,  etc.  They  would  then  go 
home  fully  satisfied  that  they  had  done  God  and  man  suffi 
cient  service  not  only  to  atone  for  the  sins  of  the  past  week, 
but  that  the  excess  of  charity  deposited  to  their  credit  would 
be  enough  for  the  next  week,  should  disease  or  accident 
hurry  them  suddenly  to  their  account.  At  the  end  of 
the  year  it  would  be  easy,  out  of  a  net  income  of  several 
thousands,  to  give  the  priest  a  few  hundreds,  who  had 
beguiled  the  long,  tedious  hours  of  Sunday  with  pleasant 
music  and  learned  discourses,  seasoned  just  to  their  taste. 
How  cheerfully  even  could  they  give  a  fraction  of  their 
abundance  to  one  who  had  opened  the  door  of  heaven 
wide  enough  for  them  to  go  in  with  all  their  sins  on  their 
backs !  How  very  relishable,  too,  it  made  the  sermon, 
to  season  it  well  with  hatred  of  those  who  didn't  belong 
to  this  new  sect  of  Christians!  When  the  prohibitory 
law  was  the  mania,  how  I  would  abuse  those  who 
claimed  that  whisky  and  wines  might  be  profitably  used 
on  some  occasions.  How  I  used  to  abuse,  as  infidels, 
those  who  refused  to  believe  in  mesmerism,  spiritualism, 
and  all  the  other  isms  which  have  been  set  up  by  infi 
delity  to  supplant  Christianity.  But  my  principal  reli 
gion  was  to  hate  and  revile  the  slave-holder.  How  I 
would  work  up  their  feelings  on  this  subject,  until  their 
hearts  were  filled  with  the  bitterest  hatred  !  How  much 
more  palatable  it  is  for  the  human  heart  to  hate  than  to 
love  !  The  measure  of  a  man's  Christianity  was  the 
degree  of  his  hatred.  The  most  devout  Christian  in  my 
church  (for  he  was  the  bitterest  hater  of  the  slave-holder) 
worked  about  a  hundred  laborers,  and  he  would  fleece 
them  to  the  very  butf,  Besides  hiring  them  always  at 
reduced  wages,  he  would  manage,  by  furnishing  them 
with  provisions  and  clothing,  to  get  back  half  of  the 

0 


62  THE   GREAT   TRIAL. 

small  wages  he  had  agreed  to  pay  them.     13ut  then  these 
poor  devils  were  only  '  poor  white  trash.' 

"  Gentlemen,  this  religion,  or  rather  irreligion,  is  a 
good  religion  for  the  rich;  but  then  the  rich  are  only  a 
very  small  proportion  of  the  people.  The  great  majority 
of  the  people  are  the  laboring  classes,  and  this  religion 
don't  suit  them.  Suppose  somebody  would  preach  to 
them  Christianity,  what  a  waking  up  there  would  be! 
It  is  a  good  religion  for  the  common  people.  One  of  its 
marked  characteristics,  as  given  by  its  great  Author,  is, 
the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them.  Christianity 
says  to  the  financial,  commercial,  and  every  other  species 
of  gambler,  Thou  shalt  not  steal.  It  says  to  the  rich, 
Go  and  sell  what  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor.  It 
don't  trifle  with  the  laborer  by  giving  him  the  bauble  of 
suffrage  and  an  imaginary  equality,  whilst  he  is  toiling 
for  wages  which  don't  furnish  the  comforts,  nay,  hardly 
the  necessaries,  of  life.  It  says,  Thou  shalt  not  muzzle 
the  ox  which  treads  out  the  grain ;  it  says  the  laborer  is 
worthy  of  his  hire.  It  claims,  too,  for  its  great  head  the 
Creator,  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  the  cattle  upon  a 
thousand  hills,  not  to  pamper  the  few,  and  gratify  their 
licentious  lusts,  but  to  feed  and  clothe  and  comfort  all. 
I  have  no  doubt,  gentlemen,"  continued  the  priest,  "the 
fact  has  never  occurred  to  you  that  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war  we  had  a  worse  system  of  slavery  in  the  North 
ern  States  than  that  which  existed  in  the  South.  We 
bought  our  slaves,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  them,  at 
prices  ranging  from  five  hundred  to  two  thousand  dollars 
per  head  ;  we  bought  them  at  these  prices,  too,  to  go  to 
the  slaughter-pens  of  war  ;  to  endure  the  toils,  the  pri 
vations,  the  clangers,  and  insults  of  a  soldier's  life;  to 
lose  their  arms  and  legs ;  to  lie  unburied  upon  a  hundred 
battle-fields,  and  to  leave  their  wives  widows  and  their  chil 
dren  orphans.  I  say,  to  endure  all  these  hardships,  and  to 
come  to  this  awful  end,  we  bought  them  at  prices  ranging 
from  five  hundred  to  two  thousand  dollars,  to  be  paid  in  an 
uncertain  and  fluctuating  currency,  always  at  a  discount. 
This  was  the  estimate  the  masters  put  upon  their  slaves 
in  this  land  of  freedom  and  equality.  And  the  estimate 
was  just,  for  any  number  of  purchases  could  be  made  at 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  (J3 

these  rates.  At  the  same  time,  negro  slaves  were  selling 
in  the  South  at  prices  ranging  from  fifteen  hundred  to 
three  thousand  dollars  in  gold.  I  mean  young,  hearty, 
and  able-bodied  men,  such  as  we  bought  for  the  war. 
They,  too,  were  bought,  not  to  be  subjected  to  the  priva 
tions  and  hardships  of  war,  but  to  do  honest  labor  ;  nol 
to  be  wounded,  maimed,  and  destroyed,  but  to  raise  rice, 
cotton,  sugar,  and  tobacco,  to  feed  and  clothe  mankind  , 
the  purchaser  being  bound,  after  the  slave  ceased  to  bo 
serviceable,  either  from  accident  or  age,  to  take  care  of 
him  till  death.  What  became  of  our  slaves  after  the 
war  was  over  ?  We,  indeed,  give  them  a  little  land  as  a 
bounty;  but  this  is  away  off  in  the  wilderness.  As  it  is 
wholly  inaccessible  to  them, — for  they  are  too  poor  to 
use  it, — they  are  compelled  to  sell  it  at  a  mere  nominal 
price  to  those  who  stayed  at  home  during  the  war  and 
made  money.  These  parties  buy  it,  and  let  it  lie,  to  be 
a  fortune  some  of  these  days  for  their  children  ;  or  else  a 
number  of  them  buy  up  these  claims  until  they  get  a 
large  body  of  land,  and  then  they  join  and  buy  Congress 
to  make  a  railroad  through  it.  That's  not  all ;  these 
poor  devils  are  put  to  work  to  pay  back  the  money  which 
was  used  to  buy  them  with.  For  this  money  is  a  part 
of  the  government  debt;  and  who  pays  that  but  the 
laboring  classes,  the  same  men  who  were  bought  up  to 
do  the  fighting?  The  rich  don't  pay  it;  for,  as  oppress 
ive  as  the  taxes  now  are,  they  are  getting  richer.  No, 
sir,  it  is  the  common  people  on  whom  all  the  burdens  of 
debt  must  eventually  fall.  But,  gentlemen,  it  seems  to 
me  to  be  useless  to  discuss  this  matter  any  further.  You 
see  that  we  are  standing  on  dangerous  ground.  You 
see,  too,  the  necessity  of  doing  our  work  quickly  and 
thoroughly.  We  must  move  heaven  and  earth  to  get 
things  in  our  power  before  the  people  wake  up.  When 
we  get  the  government  in  our  hands,  and  this  we  must  do 
at  all  hazards,  let  them  wake  up  ;  we  can  then  afford  to 
laugh  at  them.  But,  to  put  the  thing  beyond  the  possi 
bility  of  danger,  we  must  perfect  this  mule-breeding 
business.  Let  us  once  get  a  cross  between  the  negro  and 
1  poor  white  trash,'  and  our  work  will  be  done  for  ever." 
"  I  think,"  said  the  bondautocrat,  "  there  is  some  truth 


64  THE   GREAT   TRIAL. 

in  your  view  of  the  matter,  and  some  danger,  too.  At 
all  events,  there  will  be  nothing  lost  hv  being  on  the  safe 
side." 

"  I  agree  with  you, "said  the  politician  ;  "  but  I  hardly 
think  as  much  haste  and  precaution  necessary  as  does 
my  friend  the  priest." 

"  You  politicians,"  answered  the  preacher,  "  are  a 
reckless  set  of  men.  You  not  only  do  things  which  are 
foolish  and  inexpedient,  but  you  do  such  things  when 
there  is  no  earthly  necessity  for  them.  For  instance, 
you  have  imposed  an  unlimited  stamp-tax  on  the  people, — . 
an  extremely  bad  thing  at  best,  because  of  its  origin.  It 
was  one  of  those  wrongs  which  led  our  fathers  to  throw 
off  the  authority  of  the  British  government  and  set  up 
for  themselves.  Now,  instead  of  trying  to  conceal  the 
obnoxious  association  of  this  thing  from  the  people,  it 
would  seem  that  you  are  trying  to  remind  them  of  it 
constantly.  For  you  have  on  every  stamp  the  face  of 
George  Washington,  whose  memory  is  dear  to  the  Ameri 
can  people,  because  he  led  their  fathers  successfully  in  that 
long  and  terrible  struggle  against  this  same  infamous 
stamp-tax." 

"  You  mistake,"  said  the  politician  ;  "  it  is  not  the  same 
tax,  but  a  very  different  one.  That  was  taxation  without 
representation." 

"  Are  not,"  said  the  preacher,  "  the  children  of  Patrick 
Henry,  of  the  Marions,  of  the  Sumpters,  and  the  children 
of  the  Lees,  aye,  the  very  descendants  of  Washington 
even, — are  not  the  children  of  those  noble  men  who  gal 
lantly  flew  to  the  help  of  our  fathers,  and  made  a  com 
mon  cause  with  them,  paying  this  stamp-tax  without 
representation  ?" 

"  They  are  rebels,  and  don't  deserve  representation," 
said  the  politician. 

"I  find  out,"  said  the  preacher,  "that  they  who  want 
to  play  the  tyrant  over  their  fellow-men  are  never  at-a 
loss  for  a  plea.  England  had  one,  and  a  very  good  one 
in  her  own  estimation,  when  she  wanted  to  impose  the 
stamp-tax  on  our  fathers.  England  has  one,  and  a  good 
c/ne  in  her  own  opinion  to-day,  for  trampling  Ireland  un 
do"  hur  feet.  Russia  had  one  for  blotting  out  the  exist- 


THE  FIRST   WITNESS.  G5 

ence  of  Poland.  Austria  bad  an  excuse  for  destroying 
the  freedom  of  Hungary.  France  had  an  excuse  for 
keeping  Italy  in  chains.  Indeed,  every  despot  who  has 
ever  scourged  the  world  has  had  an  excuse  for  it, — one, 
too,  which  was  good  in  his  own  estimation.  We  have 
an  excuse  for  doing  what  we  are  now  about,  trying  to 
make  a  race  of  mules  out  of  the  negroes  and  'poor  white 
trash.'  But  do  you  think  the  'poor  white  trash' — if 
they  knew  what  we  were  at — would  consider  our  excuse 
a  good  one  ?  My  dear  sir,  there  is  an  extreme  degree  of 
folly  in  this  thing  of  putting  Washington's  face  on  these 
stamps,  which  looks  to  me  like  infatuation.  If  we  don't 
act  with  more  prudence  than  this,  the  people  will  find  us 
out;  and  then,  as  I  said  before,  it  were  better  for  us  if  a 
millstone  were  hanged  about  our  necks  and  we  were  cast 
into  the  midst  of  the  sea.  This  stamp-tax  ought  to  have 
been  avoided  anyhow,  on  account  of  its  obnoxious  asso 
ciations.  Why,  the  rebels  will  say,  and  how  will  you 
answer  them,  that  if  they  were  never  justifiable  before  in 
being  rebels,  they  are  now  ;  for  you  have  imposed  on 
them  the  same  wrongs  which  led  our  fathers  and  their 
fathers  to  rebel.  That  rebellion  we  justify  and  applaud. 
They  will  say  they  fought  us  because  they  believed  that 
we  intended  to  impose  those  grievous  wrongs  on  them. 
By  imposing  those  wrongs  as  soon  as  we  got  the  power 
in  our  hands,  and  that,  too,  in  the  most  palpable  and 
unpopular  shape,  we  justify  both  their  suspicions  and 
their  conduct." 

"  Well,"  said  the  politician,  "  after  all,  we  are  only  fol 
lowing  the  example  of  your  profession.  After  the  war 
was  over,  and  I  saw  the  South  a  heap  of  ruins ;  when  I 
saw  the  mothers  at  the  graves  of  their  sons,  like  Rachel 
weeping  for  her  children,  and  refusing  to  be  comforted 
because  they  were  not,  I  could  not  but  pity  them,  as 
badly  as  I  hated  them  and  as  earnestly  as  I  worked 
against  them.  About  that  time  I  read  a  long  discourse, 
in  which  the  author  took  occasion  to  mock  at  those 
wretched  mothers  and  to  insult  their  woe.  There  was  a 
henrtlessness  in  this  thing  which  looked  to  me  heathenish. 
Whose  image  and  superscription  do  you  suppose  I  found 
*>n  this  discourse  ?  none  other  than  his  who  died  for  his 

6* 


G6  THE  GREAT  TRIAL. 

enemies,  bis  who,  when  be  looked  over  Jerusalem,  that 
proud  and  rebellious  city,  and  saw,  with  tbe  eye  of 
prophecy,  the  woes  which  were  about  to  overtake  it, 
wept.  Yes,  be  wept  for  them  who  were  preparing  to 
slay  him.  How  different,  too,  was  bis  language  :  '  O 
Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  bow  often  would  I  have  gathered 
thy  children  together,  even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  brood 
under  her  wings !'  And  yet  this  discourse  I  speak  of, 
so  bitter  and  malevolent,  had  on  it  the  sign  of  the  cross, 

for  it  was  signed  the  Rev.  ,  the  chief  priest  of  your 

sects ;  I  say  sects,  because  I  don't  know  whether  he 
belongs  to  the  Pharisees  or  Sadducees :  I  suspect  the 
latter,  for  he  certainly  don't  believe  in  a  hereafter." 

"I  know  whom  you  mean,"  said  the  preacher;  "he 
repented  of  that  afterward,  and  recommended  a  kind  and 
conciliatory  policy  towards  the  South." 

"1  know  how  much  he  repented,'*'  said  the  politician. 
"  Such  a  monster  may  repent  of  some  unintentional  good 
he  has  done,  but  never  of  evil.  That  crafty  old  Machia- 
velli  who  runs  the  machine  at  Washington,  and  watches 
so  closely  the  changes  of  political  sentiment,  wanted  a 
good  strong  weather-cock  to  see  if  the  heavy  gale  which 
had  been  blowing  from  the  north,  and  bearing  the  ship  of 
state  along  with  it,  had  not  subsided  enough  for  them 
to  make  headway  against  it.  He  duped  this  creature 
with  false  promises,  or  equivocal  ones  at  least,  such  as 
he  always  makes,  to  become  his  weather-cock.  When 
he  found  the  current  was  too  strong  to  be  stemmed,  he 
left  the  weather-cock  to  be  blown  away  or  to  turn  with 
the  wind.  The  world  was  amused  to  see  this  weather 
cock — for  such  he  is  and  ever  has  been — a  mere  negative 
thing,  without  a  spark  of  moral  courage,  that  vital  and 
inherent  life-principle  which  gives  motion  to  noble  bodies, 
and  enables  them  to  move  against  the  times  and  tides 
around  them. — I  say  that  the  world  was  amused  to  see 
this  weather-cock,  so  contrary  to  the  nature  of  the  thing, 
fluttering  for  a  time  against  the  wind.  They  did  not 
know  that  it  had  been  electrified  by  the  touch  of  political 
power  and  patronage.  It  didn't  last  long,  however.  A 

heavy  gale  from  his  church  at put  the  thing  back 

iu  its  place,  and  showed  to  the  world  that  a  weather-cock 


THE  FIRST    W1TNFSS.  67 

is  only  a  weather-cock  after  all.     His  rich  paymasters  at 

his  fine   church    in  murmured  their   dissent;  and 

the  thought  of  losing  ten  thousand  a  year,  without  the 
certainty  of  high  political  preferment,  was  too  much 
wind  for  even  a  big  weather-cock.  Most  truly  has  he 
repented  of  the  little  good  he  proposed  to  do  to  the 
South,  and  followed  those  bitter  and  revengeful  inclina 
tions  of  his  cowardly  soul  with  a  new  zeal." 

"  This  mule-breeding  business,  gentlemen,"  interrupted 
the  bondautocrat  with  a  smile,  "  is  a  big  undertaking ; 
but  really  I  would  rather  try  my  hand  at  that  than  to 
attempt  to  make  honest  men  of  you  two,  if  half  you  say 
of  each  other  be  true.  I  think,"  he  added,  "that  it  would 
be  easier  to  make  mules  out  of  the  negro  and  '  poor  white 
trash'  than  to  make  patriots  and  Christians  of  politicians 
and  preachers." 

"  As  to  being  a  Christian,"  said  the  politician,  "I 
never  made  any  pretensions  to  that.  My  friend  the 
priest  can  answer  for  himself." 

"  I  suppose,"  said  the  priest,  "  I  am  just  about  as  good 
a  Christian  as  you  are  a  patriot." 

"  Well,  really,"  answered  the  politician,  "  I  never  claimed 
to  be  a  patriot  any  further  than  patriotism  means  loyalty." 

"And  that,"  said  the  preacher,  "is  just  far  enough  to 
get  the  loaves  and  fishes,  and  not " 

"  And  not,"  put  in  the  politician,  "  far  enough,  brother, 
to  honor  the  miracle  that  made  them." 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  the  bondautocrat,  "  to  talk  seems 
to  be  the  business  of  both  your  professions  ;  to  act  is  the 
business  of  mine.  Let  us  determine  upon  a  plan  of 
operations  for  the  future,  and  go  to  work." 

"  Well,"  said  the  preacher,  "  it  is  my  part  of  the  busi 
ness  to  prepare  the  minds  of  the  people  for  miscegena 
tion  ;  yours,  Mr.  Politician,  to  make  the  thing  practical 
by  legislation ;  and  yours,  Mr.  Bondautocrat,  to  pay 
expenses.  Take  care,  Mr.  Politician,  to  so  shape  tho 
policy  of  the  government  that  we  can  use  force,  if  per 
suasion  fails ;  for  this  purpose  we  must  get  the  whole 
power  into  our  own  hands." 

"I  was  afraid  at  one  time,"  said  the  politician,  "that 
our  impeachment  scheme  would  fa'il.  Indeed,  many  of 


,68  THE   GREAT  TRIAL. 

our  party  were  timid,  and  hesitated  to  go  into  it  until 
the  New  York  democracy  came  to  our  aid.  When  they 
passed  those  resolutions  at  the  Cooper  Institute  and 
other  places,  declaring  that,  notwithstanding  the  thing 
was  wicked,  and  unconstitutional,  and  revolutionary, 
they  would  nevertheless  submit  to  it  if  we  did  it,  there 
was  no  further  trouble.  Had  they  taken  a  bold  and 
determined  stand  against  impeachment,  we  never  could 
have  carried  the  thing  through." 

"Ah,"  said  the  priest,  "Mr.  Bondautocrat  and  myself 
were  watching  that  thing;  we  prepared  those  resolu 
tions,  and  put  them  into  the  hands  of  their  leaders.  The 
same  game,  you  remember,  Mr.  Politician,  we  played  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war.  There  was  really  no  necessity 
for  the  war,  and  if  the  Democratic  party  had  taken  a  bold 
stand  against  it  there  really  could  not  have  been  any 
war.  Indeed,  three-fourths  of  the  Southern  people  were 
opposed  to  the  war  and  opposed  to  disunion.  But  when 
we  forced  on  them  an  invasion  of  their  country  they 
were  bound  to  take  sides.  There  were,  in  the  State  of 
Virginia  alone,  a  majority  of  sixty  thousand  opposed 
both  to  war  and  to  disunion.  By  the  way,  they  were 
those  men  of  high  courage  and  unshaken  purpose  who, 
when  they  did  go  into  the  thing,  held  out  to  the  bitter 
end.  They — the  Union  men  of  the  South — held  out 
against  us  long  after  the  Secessionists  had  caved  in.  I 
repeat,  had  the  Democratic  party  of  the  North  determined 
that  there  should  be  no  war,  there  never  would  have 
been  any  disunion,  for  a  majority  of  the  Southern  States 
would  have  refused  to  go  out.  In  a  few  years  the  cotton 
States  would  have  been  tired  of  shivering  outside  in  the 
cold,  and  would  have  been  glad  to  come  back.  But,  sir, 
that  would  have  defeated  our  policy,  and  destroyed  all 
our  plans.  We  would  have  had  no  big  debt  by  which 
to  build  up  a  grand  aristocracy  ;  we  would  have  had  no 
mongrel  breed  of  slaves  to  build  our  aristocracy  on  ;  and 
then  we  would  hav,e  had  no  grand  and  powerful  govern 
ment  like  those  of  Europe — nothing,  sirs,  but  a  simple 
economical  democracy,  in  which  the  aristocracy  and 
priesthood  enjoy  no  special  privileges.  But  we  went  to 
wopk  and  bought  up  the  Democratic  leaders  with  gold 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  09 

and  office  together,  until  we  got  the  rank  and  file  into 
the  army,  and  then  we  kicked  the  leaders  out.  The  same 
game  we  will  play  again.  Let  them  meet  at  the  Cooper 
Institute,  and  wherever  else  they  please,  and  pass  their 
resolutions;  we  will  make  the  same  bargain  with  the 
rabble  that  old  Frederick  of  Prussia  did  with  his  'poor 
white  trash.'  '  My  people,'  said  that  wise  king,  '  may  say 
what  they  please,  so  long  as  they  let  me  do  as  I  please.'  " 

"I  am  afraid,"  said  the  bondautocrat,  "they  will  beat 
us  in  the  elections  next  fall."* 

"And  what  if  they  do?"  answered  the  politician; 
"  while  we  have  the  power  of  impeachment  they  may 
elect  as  many  Presidents  as  they  please.  My  dear 
sir,"  continued  he,  "  we  will  manage  the  business  like 
that  eminent  statesman,  Count  Bismarck,  is  doing  it  in 
Prussia  to-day  :  he  gives  universal  suffrage  to  the  people, 
bids  them  elect  whom  they  please;  and  then  he  tells 
their  representatives  what  to  do.  So,  when  the  people 
send  members  of  Congress  here  who  don't  suit  us,  we 
will  send  them  back;  and  when  they  elect  their  Presi 
dent,  if  he  does  not  suit  us  we  will  impeach  him.  We 
will  make  Andy  Johnson  an  example,  and  his  case  will 
serve  as  a  precedent.  Universal  suffrage  !  Yes,  we  will 
let  them  all  vote,  negroes,  women  and  all,  just  so  long 
as  they  will  let  us  hold  on  to  the  government  and  exer 
cise  its  powers.  The  Southern  States  we  have  all  right, 
and  if  it  becomes  necessary  we  will  pass  a  law,  just  be 
fore  the  presidential  election,  allowing  the  negro  to  vote 
in  the  Northern  States.  We  must  wait  with  that,  how 
ever,  until  the  political  excitement  gets  high,  so  high 
that  our  own  party  will  be  willing  to  accept  anything 
rather  than  be  beaten  ;  and  then,  just  long  enough  before 
hand  to  get  the  benefit  of  this  thing,  we  will  pass  a  law 
allowing  the  negroes  to  vote  in  all  the  States.  If  all  the 
negroes  vote,  we  will  be  able  to  outvote  them.  If  the 
people  won't  let  them  vote,  as  will  be  the  case  in  some 
places,  we  will  call  that  fraud  and  violence,  and  reject 
the  election.  The  fact  of  the  business  is,  nothing  is 
'.van ted  but  a  bold  front  and  determined  action  to  carry 

*  This  was  written  in  1808. 


70  THE   GREAT   TRIAL. 

us  through.  The  Northern  people  who  have  property 
will  let  the  government  go,  yea,  every  vestige  of  it,  be 
fore  they  will  resist.  Resistance  might  lead  to  war ; 
war  would  endanger  their  property,  and  their  property 
is  dearer  to  them  than  their  democracy,  their  country,  or 
their  liberties.  Indeed,  men  who  have  property"  are 
right,  for  under  strong  governments  property  is  more 
secure  and  enjoys  always  peculiar  privileges.  A  strong 
government  always  for  the  rich  :  it  will  in  time  secure 
to  them  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  aristocracy.  We 
need  have  no  fears  of  that  class  of  society  ;  'tis  only 
the  'poor  white  trash'  who  are  likely  to  give  us  trouble. 
The  only  effectual  way  of  taming  them  that  1  know  of 
will  be  to  get  a  little  negro  blood  into  their  veins." 

"I  have  thought,"  said  the  preacher,  ''that  it  would 
help  the  business  along  very  much  for  some  of  our  party 
who  have  talent  and  influence  to  marry  their  daughters 
to  negroes.  It  would  be  unpleasant,  'tis  true,  but  we 
must  do  a  great  many  unpleasant  things  to  accomplish 
our  purpose.  It  goes  a  great  way  with  the  'poor  white 
trash'  for  some  of  their  leaders  to  set  them  an  example. 
Suppose  one  of  you  gentlemen  lead  off." 

"My  daughters,"  said  the  politician,  a  good  deal  ex 
cited,  "have  been  differently  educated." 

"Mr.  Priest,"  put  in  the  bondautocrat,  with  a  wily 
smile,  "as  this  is  a  moral  question,  it  seems  to  belong  to 
your  profession  particularly  to  set  the  example." 

"  My  dear  sir,"  answered  the  priest,  "  I  am  too  poor. 
My  salary  is  large,  it  is  true,  but  yet  it  takes  it  all  to 
keep  my  family  up  to  the  top  of  society.  That  society 
thinks  like  we  do,  that  this  is  a  very  good  thing  for  the 
'poor  white  trash,'  but  a  very  bad  thing  for  the  first 
circles.  If  a  negro  should  come  into  my  family  we 
would  have  to  come  down,  and  I,  perhaps,  would  lose 
my  salary  besides.  If  I  was  rich  like  you,  it  would  be 
a  different  thing.  A  man  who  is  rich  can  do  what  he 
pleases,  and  nobody  calls  him  to  account.  It  would  be 
the  very  making  of  my  friend  the  politician  ;  it  would 
make  him  popular  with  the  'poor  white  trash,'  who  do 
the  voting,  and  this  would  secure  for  him  any  office  he 
might  desire." 


THE  FIRST    WITNESS.  71 

"Gentlemen,"  said  the  politician,  a  good  deal  out  of 
temper,  "  I  am  willing,  as  I  said  before,  to  do  anything 
but  go  to  the  devil  or  to  send  my  daughters  there;  and 
as  marrying  my  daughters  to  negroes  would  amount  to 
about  the  same  thing,  it  is  out  of  the  question  to  talk 
about  it." 

"I  think,"  said  the  bondautocrat,  "it  would  look 
better  in  the  priest  than  in  either  of  us,  and  have  more 
weight  besides;  so  if  you  will  go  into  it,  Mr.  Priest, 
I  will  guarantee  the  pay." 

"The  pay,"  said  the  priest,  absorbed  in  thought:  "the 
pay — how  much,  sir?" 

"Why,"  said  the  bondautocrat,  " dollars  for  your 

daughter  and dollars  for  yourself." 

"Change  the  figures  a  little,"  said  the  preacher:  "  — 
dollars  for  my  daughter  and  —  dollars  for  myself.  My 
daughter,  sir,  will  have  to  move  in  a  different  circle,  and 
won't  need  so  much.  A  little  will  make  her  comfortable 
in  the  society  in  which  she  will  have  to  move.  As  a 
compensation  for  the  loss  of  one  of  my  daughters,  I  will 
spend  this  money  in  lifting  the  others  higher  up.  Indeed, 
my  daughters  too  are  educated  against  this  thing ;  but 
one  of  them  is  not  so  bright  as  the  rest,  and  her  disposi 
tion,  too,  is  kind  and  confiding.  I  think — yes,  I  think — 
I  can  persuade  her  to  it.  My  family  won't  like  it,  either; 
but  then  the  idea  of  being  rich, — yes,  sir,  the  idea  of 
being  rich! — I  think  that  will  do  the  work, — I  think 
that  will  do  the  work,"  repeated  the  preacher  to  himself. 
"The  pay,  sir,  the  pay, — when  may  I  expect  that?" 

"  The  half  of  it  I  will  put  in  the  hands  of  our  friend 
here  to-morrow,  and  the  balance  as  soon  as  the  matter 
shall  be  settled." 

"Well,  gentlemen,"  said  the  preacher,  "as  it  is  late  I 
will  bid  you  good-night.  We  must  meet  often  to  report 
and  consult.  Let  none  of  our  secrets  get  out;  we  must 
tell  nobody  outside,  of  our  league,  not  even  our  wives. 
Good-night!" 

"Well,  I  am  poor,"  said  the  politician,  "and  don't 
profess  to  be  over-conscientious;  but  before  I  would 
marry  one  of  my  pretty  daughters  to  a  negro,  I  would 
turn  soUlicr  and  eat  hard-tack.  Marry  my  daughter  to 


72  THE    CHEAT   TRIAL. 

a  negro! — my  offspring  and  theirs  degraded  forever! 
Sooner  would  I  follow  them  to  the  grave!  yea,  sooner 
would  I  see  their  beauty  blasted  by  the  plague,  the  leprosy, 
or  any  other  curse  that  heaven  might  send  on  them  !"  * 

"I  agree  with  you,"  said  the  bondautocrat.  "I  love 
money:  it  has  been  the  object  of  my  life  to  make  it;  to 
make  money  is  my  hope  for  the  future;  and  yet,  rather 
than  my  daughter,  so  beautiful  and  accomplished,  should 
lose  her  beauty — her  pretty  blushes  and  her  pretty  blue 
eyes — in  the  dark,  dead  skin  of  the  negro,  and  his 
glaring,  glassy  eyes,  I  would  go  from  the  city  to  the 
mountains,  and  from  a  palace  to  a  cabin!  What  man 
ner  of  men  are  these  preachers,  anyhow?  I  never  ac 
counted  myself  a  very  good  man,  but  surely  J  never 
dreamed  of  a  man  as  bad  as  that  fellow.  He  has  talents ; 
he  has  learning.  He  told  me  truths  here  to-night  that  I 
never  knew  before;  indeed,  he  seems  to  know  almost 
everything,  and  yet  I  never  met  with  a  man  so  bad.  I 
never  thought  much  of  these  priests;  really  I  never 
thought  much  about  them  any  way.  I  took  them  to  bo 
men  of  soft  hearts  and  mostly  of  soft  heads.  This 
fellow  has  any  amount  of  brains,  but  no  heart  at  all.  He 
must  certainlv  be  an  exception, — a  black  sheep  in  the 
flock." 

"JSTot  by  any  means,"  answered  the  politician.  "The 
good  man  is  the  exception  in  this  profession.  I  have 
been  thrown  a  good  deal  with  them,  and  have  found 
them  to  be,  as  a  class,  the  most  villainous  and  heartless 
men  in  the  world.  Of  late  years  it  has  gotten  to  be 
very  common  for  these  priests  to  turn  politician,  and  1 
have  found  them,  almost  without  an  exception,  to  be 
mean  and  unprincipled  men.  I  think  it  is  the  large  ac 
cession  to  our  profession  from  that  class  which  has  made 
the  name  politician  the  synonym  of  scoundrel.  Look  at 
the  proceedings  of  their  synods  and  conferences  after  the 
war:  they  exhibit  nothing  but  a  spirit  of  the  most  ran 
corous  hate.  Could  they  have  had  the  power  they  would 
have  gone  down  South  and  taken  possession  of  all  the 
fburch  property.  More  than  that,  sir:  1  verily  believe 
they  would  have  compelled  those  unfortunate  people  to 
attend  their  preaching  of  malevolence,  hate,  and  abuse, 


Tin:  FIRST  WITNESS.  73 

or  put  them  to  the  rack  and  torture.  What  is  most  re 
markable  is  that  all  their  ecclesiastical  bodies — all  the 
Protestant  ones,  at  least  (I  am  a  Protestant,  and  keep 
posted  about  their  doings) — showed  the  same  cruel  and 
ruthless  spirit  of  revenge.  I  indeed  had  no  love  for  the 
rebels,  and  yet  I  could  not  but  pity  their  wretched  situ 
ation  after  the  war.  I  wanted  to  destroy  their  govern 
ment  ;  but  these  priests,  from  the  way  they  talked  and 
acted,  would  have  destroyed  them  both  soul  and  body. 
I  am  sure  that  not  one  of  them  in  a  hundred  has  any 
idea  of  the  better  instincts  of  humanity,  much  less  of  the 
divine  benevolence  of  the  Christian  religion.  But  it  is 
late,  and  we  must  part.  Good-night,  sir ;  I  wish  you 
pleasant  dreams." 

"I  think,"  said  the  boudautocrat,  smiling,  "I  shall 
dream  to-night  of  stars  and  garters,  coronets,  dukedoms 
and  lordships." 

"  You  shall  realize  them  all  some  of  these  days,"  re 
plied  the  politician,  "if  our  plans  are  only  successful." 

"So  good-night,  my  lord,  good-night.'7 


BILL  OF  EIGHTS. 


Resolved  1st.  That  we  believe  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  not  as  an  idle  sentiment,  but  as  a  living 
truth. 

2d.  That  the  early  administration  of  our  National 
and  State  governments,  under  the  authors  of  that  noble 
declaration  of  the  rights  of  man,  was  the  true  and  only 
true  practical  expression  of  its  meaning. 

3d.  That  such  practice  inculcated  neither  the  tyranny 
of  a  licensed  mobocracy  nor  the  insolent  rule  of  a  petty 
moueyed  monopoly,  but  on  the  contrary  that  justice  to 
all  is  the  freedom  and  happiness  of  all. 

4th.  That  the  inalienable  rights  of  man  are  the  per 
sonal  freedom  of  each  individual  man,  and  an  intrans- 
ferable  right  to  his  daily  bread — the  unhindered  enjoy 
ment  of  the  fruits  of  his.  labor. 

5th.  That  any  power,  whether  it  be  ecclesiastical  or 
political,  which,  either  through  tithes  or  taxes,  takes 
from  the  common  people  the  fruits  of  their  labor,  the 
means  of  their  happiness,  their  peace  and  good-will  to  ono 
another,  is  in  open  rebellion  against  the  plain  teachings 
of  the  Bible,  and  the  political  and  social  rights  taught 
us  by  the  founders  of  the  American  Democracy. 

(^fli.  That  governments  in  the  American  sense  mean 
servant.-  ami  not  masters  of  the  people,  and  that  as  ser- 


DILL  OF  RIGHTS. 

vants  they  can  exercise  only  such  powers  as  secure  the 
happiness  and  prosperity  of  their  masters. 

7th.  That  the  exercise  of  any  and  all  other  powers 
whatsoever  is  at  war  with  the  sovereign  rights  of  indi 
vidual  freedom,  the  inalienable  rights  of  man,  and  all 
acts  done  by  such  usurped  power  are  illegal,  unjust,  and 
of  no  binding  authority. 

8th.  That  the  late  civil  war  in  the  United  States  was 
simply  a  conflict  for  power  between  king  cotton  and  king 
monopoly,  neither  king  having  any  regard  for  the  weir 
fare  of  the  people  at  large. 

9th.  That  the  people  are  bound  by  the  love  of  their 
children  that  were  slain,  of  their  liberties  that  were 
destroyed,  and  by  their  duty  to  their  God,  their  country, 
to  bring  these  tyrants  to  the  bar  of  public  opinion — the 
great  tribunal  of  justice  on  earth — and  by  repudiating 
their  wicked  deeds  wash  their  hands  of  the  wrong  against 
humanity. 

10th.  That  the  present  taxes  of  the  people  are  more 
than  all  their  net  earnings,  and  this  is  not  American 
freedom  but  Egyptian  bondage. 

llth.  That  preachers  and  politicians  who  would  teach 
the  people  to  endure  this  condition  of  things  are  neither 
Christians  nor  patriots,  but  the  hired  agents  of  mammon  ; 
and  that  the  public  press  which  falters  in  its  duty  is  no 
better. 

12th.  That  with  one-hundredth  part  of  the  present 
taxes  we  could  have  an  honest,  faithful,  and  prosperous 
administration  of  public  affairs. 

13th.  That  the  people  have  a  right  to  meet  in  their 
respective  neighborhoods  throughout  the  United  States 
to  choose  delegates  to  represent  them  in  a  National 


BILL  OF  RIGHTS. 

Convention ;  to  create  a  government  for  themselves  and 
their  children,  without  any  regard  to  the  dead  past,  save 
to  repudiate  its  wrongs  and  throw  off  its  burdens. 

14th.  That  we  invite  the  people  of  the  United  States 
from  Maine  to  California  to  meet  us  in  National  Conven? 
tioii,  to  make  a  common  effort  to  rescue  our  country  from 
the  grasp  of  a  giant,  corporate  power,  masked  under  the 
guise  of  legal  government. 

15th.  That  such  a  spectacle  would  be  a  living  witness 
(and  the  first  ever  given  to  the  world)  of  the  capacity  of 
man  for  self-government,  and  a  sure  guarantee  of  those 
inherent  and  inalienable  rights  which  corporate  power, 
miscalled  government,  has  hitherto  usurped  to  destroy 
the  personal  freedom  and  national  happiness  of  mankind. 

Not  porches,  theatres,  nor  stately  halls, 

Nor  senseless  equipage,  nor  lofty  walls, 

Nor  towers  of  wood  or  stone,  nor  workman's  arts 

Compose  a  State  ;  but  men  with  daring  hearts 

Who  on  themselves  rely  to  meet  all  calls, 

Compose  a  State  ;  it  needs  no  other  walls. 

HENRY  HUTTER, 
WM.  W.  HARNESS,  SR., 
G.  HUTTER, 
JACOB  HUTTER. 


Newspapers  plea.se  publish. 


GENERAL  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA— BERKELEY 

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